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LIBRARY Of CONGRESS. 

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CNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



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THE 



JEWISH TABERNACLE 



TWO LECTURES 



BY 



IRA J. CHASE 



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i 

CINCINNATI 
STANDARD PUBLISHING COMPANY. 



Copyright, 1883, 

BY 

Standard Publishing Company. 



DEDICATION. 

To whom, but my dear Mother, could I so appropriately dedicate this 
book ? Memory makes no record of the time when, bending at her knee, 
she taught me my first lispings in the worship of " Our Father who art in 
Heaven." Having served her Master for almost threescore years with 
fidelity, her example shall be an incentive to me to love and labor on for 
Him who is the Author of the faith once delivered to the saints. 

I. J. c. 



V 



PREFACE. 

This little work is offered to those who may be interested in the sub- 
ject, not because the author feels that what has heretofore been written has 
been of little value. By no means. The conclusions here arrived at will 
be the cause of the greatest difference. In the main, the premises are the 
same as those of the majority of writers. The author hopes to escape the 
epithet dogmatist, although he affirms in the most positive manner that he 
believes all the positions taken to be scriptural. 

These lectures have been delivered in different States and in Canada, 
more than six hundred times. The apparently sincere desire expressed by 
many to see them published in a permanent form, has induced the author 
to yield to these solicitations, and he hopes they may be as warmly wel- 
comed from the press as they have been from the platform. 

The illustrations presented in this work are photographs from the 
beautiful oil paintings always used before an audience. These paintings 
were produced under the eye of the author. It is believed by competent 
judges, - Jew and Gentile," that they more nearly represent a true repro- 
duction of the original "golden tent" than anything yet attained. No 
pains, time or expense have been spared to make them just what they 

should be. _ , , . 

In 1879 these lecturess were delivered in the city of Columbia Mo. 
Prof. A. Meyrowit, a reformed Hebrew, was at that time professor of that 
language in the State University. In a few weeks the following note was 

received : Columbia, Mo., March 17, '79- 

££££ £S£- S ^ .ives me pleasure to thin, on the two lee, res on the 
Tabernacle which you delivered here. Your wonderful knowledge of 
and of all the vessels therein, your analogical explanation between the T^dean^ 
the new dispensation, and above all your beautiful and clear delivery _and its fluency , a 
must give the greatest enjoyment, not only to the lover of Revelation but to any cul- 
tured mind. I hope that you will continue in giving these lectures for the benefit of the 
lovers of the Bible and the edification of the Church of Christ. 

Fraternally yours, A. Meyrowit. 



The only criticism the Professor offered in any way was concerning 
lamp-stand. He kindly drew upon a blackboard his conception of it 



the 



6 



PREFACE. 



the study of the Hebrew Bible. A glance at it was enough to prove that 
it satisfied all the conditions of Moses' description. A copy was taken, and 
the artist has faithfully performed his task. It is not uncouth or ill-propor- 
tioned. When you read in Exodus of its bowls, knops and flowers, here 
you will see them in the illustration, as answering back to the life. 

The labor of preparing these pages has been greater than the average 
reader will suppose. The author may not have given the proper signs for 
every borrowed thought. More may have been "absorbed" than he is 
aware of. The reading of "Walker's Gospel Plan of Salvation," "Atwat- 
er's Jewish Tabernacle," Dr. Newton and Rev. Mr. Needham on the same 
theme, with Seiss's Gospel in Leviticus, Moses and Israel, have given him 
great pleasure, and been to him a source of profit in the study of this sub- 
ject. To Prof. Palmer's " Desert of the Exodus" and the Speaker's Com- 
mentary he owes more than to all the others. Their honesty, accuracy and 
scholarship are to be highly commended. Dr. Fairbairn on this theme, 
strange as it may sound, can be but little used. No attempt has been made 
to strain a type, nor to touch upon anything not clearly indicated as a type 
by Paul in the Epistle to the Hebrews. 

The author desires to acknowledge his indebtedness also to several 
dear brethren, for kindly criticism and encouragement, especially to two 
with whom he has held correspondence. Should it be observed that in all 
cases their well meant counsel has not been followed to the letter, or if 
passed by on the other side, let them be assured that it was not done with- 
out deliberately considering the point under investigation. 

The two beautiful poems from the pen of the accomplished Christian 
sage, L. H. Jameson, were asked as special favors, to grace the topics they 
so beautifully illustrate. 

How thankful will the author feel if this small contribution laid at the 
feet of those interested shall in any way add to their interest in the study 
of God's Holy Word ! I. J. c. 



THE JEWISH TABERNACLE 



LECTURE I. 



The Bible is called a revelation from God. The word 
"revelation," we are told, signifies the rolling back of a 
vail- so the Bible unvails to us what otherwise we could 
not know of God, of ourselves, or of the great plan of sal- 
vation as revealed through Christ who was Immanuel, or 
God with us. We shall try at this time to unvail about 
three thousand five hundred years of the world's religious 
history and stand for a time in that far-off period when 
man was in that which has been beautifully and poetically 
called the moonlight age of the race. 

It could not fail to be interesting, did time and your 
patience permit, to linger for a while amidst the three great 
nations of antiquity with which the Jews were closely 
identified, the Babylonians, Egyptians and Arabians. Even 
the latter show monuments that carry their nationality 
back almost to the deluge ; a people who claim Job for a 
priest, who conversed with the invisible God before Abra- 
ham was born, but whose countrymen worshiped the sun 
and the moon. Of this, however, the' almost universal 
judgment of critics is, that Job lived after Abraham. 

But we must not linger longer upon these points. 
After several centuries had rolled back into eternity, from 

(9) 



IO 



THE JEWISH TABERNACLE. 



the time God gave 'the promise of Canaan to Abraham and 
his descendants, we witness by faith, just as we view any 
transaction of antiquity, that which proves the most mar- 
velous scene recorded in the annals of the ancient world, 
viz. : two millions or more of people who had dwelt for 
hundreds of years in Egypt — for centuries the land of let- 
ters, art and science — and who for these long, weary ages 
had been held as slaves, led out before our eyes, by the 
power of one man, from under the control of earth's great- 
est monarch, to be his subjects and do his bidding no more 
forever. This king, of whom the demand of emancipation 
was made, was one who knew not Joseph, a.former bene- 
factor of his dynasty. The sons of Jacob had enjoyed for 
a season only undisturbed prosperity among the fertile 
fields and rich pastures of Goshen. Their increase of 
numbers and wealth was rapid, and caused the king to 
look with jealous apprehension upon this race of strangers 
and shepherds, occupying, as they did, the most open and 
accessible frontier, enabling them to join in a dangerous 
confederacy with an enemy of Egypt, should they so de- 
sire. The king, with an act of tyranny as heartless as it 
was execrable, commanded them to be dragged from their 
homes and flocks, to build canals, dams, treasure and other 
cities, and public works of every kind. He doubtless 
hoped by this means to break their spirit and check their 
increase. This inhumanity failed of its purpose. Though 
they toiled wearily at heavy burdens, in damp quarries, in 
hot lime-pits and brick-yards, or in the open fields beneath 
the rays of an almost vertical sun, they seemed to multiply 
as if within the boundary of their own peaceful Goshen. 
Instead of a single tribe, inhabiting quietly a separate sec- 
tion of the domain, ana feared because it was conjectured 
that at some time it might prove dangerous to the com- 
monwealth, the government found a more numerous peo- 



THE JEWISH TABERNACLE. 



I I 



pie spread over the fairest and richest portion of the lower 
empire, and rendered dangerous to the commonwealth by 
a heartless and cruel oppression. 

The time had now come for more heroic measures to 
be used, to effectually prevent their further growth in num- 
bers • and to fully break within these slaves the spirit of re- 
volt,' the king issued a proclamation that was doubtless 
terrible to his own subjects, used as they were to tyranny, 
requiring the mid-wives of Egypt, an hereditary profes- 
sional class, to destroy at birth all male children belonging 
to Hebrew families. The king's order was either cun- 
ningly evaded or willfully disobeyed, and he was obliged 
to issue a second edict and give the matter his more im- 
mediate supervision, which he did, ordering all male chil- 
dren of Hebrew blood to be drowned at birth. At this 
time Moses was born. 

We now arrive at a period where we can plainly see 
the workings of Providence, notwithstanding the edict of 
this powerful monarch, in that God raised up a man under 
the roof of the king's palace, from among the very infants 
he sought so determinedly to destroy, who, after being 
reared and educated at his expense, was in time to go 
forth and release this oppressed people. 

The children of Egypt, belonging to families of rank, 
were sent to school at a tender age. A literary education 
was an indispensable condition for admission into the pub- 
lic service ; the title of scribe was necessary to obtaining 
the lowest appointment in either the civil or military 
branch of government. In one of their addresses to 
Thoth, their god of learning, (who was also the Hermes 
of the Greeks ), are these words : ' ' Thy works are better 
than all works ; he who devotes himself to them becomes 
a noble ; all successes in life are due to thee ; under thy in- 
spiration a man becomes great, powerful, rich ; of him all 



12 



THE JEWISH TABERNACLE. 



the world, all generations of men, cry out, 1 Great is he, 
great is the work of Thoth. ' " The mere art of writing was 
considered a wonderful, if not sacred, attainment. Geom- 
etry, however, was the highest science known to them. 
But whatever their acquirements, let it be remembered 
that Moses was carefully trained in them all ; and upon 
arriving at manhood he deliberately rejects rank and 
power — all, indeed, that pertains to Egyptian rule — and 
seeing the condition of his people, has it in his heart, 
doubtless, to break their fetters, and lead them away from 
that bitter and wasting bondage which his manly nature 
could no longer brook. The treatment of children by 
the Egyptians was simply heartless. They had two fa- 
miliar proverbs concerning them: I. The child grows up 
and his bones are broken like the bones of an ass. 2. The 
back of a lad is made that he may hearken to him that 
beats it. 

The smiting, then, that Moses saw must have been of 
unusual severity, to have attracted his attention ; much 
more so, to have moved him to violent passion. The task- 
masters of Egypt were armed with long, heavy scourges, 
made of a tough, pliant wood imported from Syria, which 
they used with dreadful severity. 

The slaying of the Egyptian is neither to be coolly 
justified nor attributed to a divine inspiration. Had God 
commanded it, Moses would not have failed to re- 
cord it. Let it rather be ascribed to the extreme and 
heartless provocation (he doing what almost any man 
would have done under similar circumstances ), to the 
well known impetuosity of his natural disposition, and to 
the habits developed in the royal household of Pharoah 
from infancy to manhood. But Moses may have thought 
this a propitious time to break the yoke of bondage and 
deliver his race. Certain it is that it was not God's time, 



THE JEWISH TABERNACLE. 13 

nor was this the manner for its accomplishment. Greater 
things were in store. The next day after the slaying of 
the Egyptian, Moses discovered that his secret was not 
safe and his motive entirely misunderstood by his own peo- 
ple He fled for life to the land of Midian, an Arabian 
province lying on both sides of the gulf of Ak-abah, the 
right hand arm of the Red Sea, where he lived and studied 
Arabian manners and customs for forty years, marrying, 
in the meantime, into the family of the leading ruler or 
priest of the province. As the years rolled by he found 
himself one day pasturing his flocks near the mountain of 
God, Sinai, called Horeb also, where he received a call and 
command, in obeying which he immortalized his name. 
He was at this time eighty years of age, when, according 
to the course of nature, the fires of ambition were burn- 
ing low. We do not select octogenarians of our times to 
lead our armies, conduct our navies, build our transconti- 
nental railways, or engage in any grand enterprise requir- 
ing the expenditure of vast sums of money and activity 
of brain. Men in this day who are four-score we find 
seeking the relaxation and not the excitement of life. 
The burning but unconsumed bush and the voice of God 
arrest his attention. God says to him, "lam the God of 
Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." 

In Exodus hi. the Lord says to him : "I have surely 
seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and 
have heard their cry by reason of their task-masters ; for I 
know their sorrows ; And I am come down to deliver 
them out of the land of the Egyptians, and to bring them 
up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a 
land flowing with milk and honey ; unto the place of the 
Canaanites, ... Now therefore, behold, the cry of 
the children of Israel is come unto me : and I have seen 
the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppress them. 



14 



THE JEWISH TABERNACLE. 



Come now, therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, 
that thou mayest bring forth my people the children of Is- 
rael out of Egypt." Now mark the meekness of Moses, 
as contrasted with his bold and dashing conduct forty 
years before. He has been a study for all ages. By the 
Israelites of his time, as well as by mankind since, he has 
been regarded as one of the greatest and grandest of men. 
But where does this appear in his writings ? In not one 
single line. Yet he could not have been unconscious of 
the greatness of his mission, though he doubtless failed to 
comprehend its far-reaching results upon the world. He 
sees and does not fail to declare his personal defects of 
character for a leader, which seem now to be insurmount- 
able for so great a task as that to which the Lord had 
called him ; neither does he fail to record them, with the 
severe reproofs he received for his persistency in shrink- 
ing from serving God. The power to perform miracles 
takes away the weakness of his objection that he is as 
nothing in the king's presence ; the giving of Aaron the 
eloquent ( who at that moment was on his way to meet his 
long-absent brother in that very wilderness ) who was to be 
his mouthpiece, removes the plea that he has a slow or 
stammering tongue. Then came the assurance that all 
those who sought his life, forty years before, in Egypt, 
were dead; and thus assured by the "I AM THAT I 
AM," he sets out for the court of the haughty monarch, 
to inaugurate one of the grandest missions known to that 
ancient civilization. It was to found a government and 
religion upon totally different principles from any that had 
ever been known. Heaven, as we shall see, and not earth, 
presented to him the model. He was to found a govern-* 
mental and religious policy that should endure when the 
dynasties of the Pharaohs should be numbered among the 
antiquities of a long past age ; when their cities and tern- 



THE JEWISH TABERNACLE. 



15 



pies, however grand in their ruins, like those of Thebes 
and Memphis, to the eye of the traveler to-day, should be 
destroyed utterly by the ravages of time ; when the gran- 
deur of their pyramids, though mountains of granite, 
should be removed or buried beneath the sands of the des- 
ert ; nay, more — a policy which should influence the na- 
tions of the earth, civilized or semi-civilized, for all time to 
come, if we may judge the future by the present and the 
past thirty-five centuries. But why should I dwell longer 
upon a theme which has been to you as an oft-told tale ? 
the birth, preservation and education of Moses ; how he 
was so wonderfully preserved by the very hand that sought 
his destruction, and that so cruelly murdered so many of 
his race and sex eighty years before ; how he rejected at 
last what most men prize above all else in the world — and 
I sometimes think the world to come — namely, wealth 
and honorable position in the gift of kings, and accepted 
the race from whence he sprung as his brethren, though 
they were a despised and hated race of slaves. His first act 
to deliver his people, you remember, proved a pitiable 
failure, and although the world would palliate the crime 
and forgive the man, he was punished with banishment 
running over what we would be apt to regard as the very 
best years of his life. When he received the divine call 
we noticed that he had no courage. No individuality 
marked a single step he took. It was all under the divine 
guidance, whether in the presence of Pharoah, defeating 
and confounding his magicians, on the march, conquering 
the Amalekites, or receiving the law. Even the organiza- 
tion of the nation into judicial bodies is credited by Moses 
to a gentile relative by marriage. The undisciplined He- 
brews who are called out as defenders of the nation, or 
" fighting tnen," are given over into the hands of the 
younger and more warlike chieftain, Joshua. If his am- 



i6 



THE JEWISH TABERNACLE. 



bition ever became aroused, it was subdued by his own 
hasty temper, causing his death before leading his host 
into their long desired home and rest in Canaan. All this 
is intelligible only with Moses as the author of this won- 
derful history. What the writer of Exodus sees in Moses 
as a man qualified for the herculean task before him is 
this : At first a shrinking from, and a reluctant surrender 
to, the will of God ; second, a man of like passions with 
all humanity, and, unfortunately, once yielding to this 
passion, paying for the transgression in his premature 
death. The only view that can be taken of the subject, it 
would seem, is that we have Moses' own account of him- 
self and his most wonderful work. 

The time had arrived when Moses, with Aaron, must 
set out for the court of Pharoah, to make the demand for 
the release of the Hebrews, that they might go with them 
a three days' journey into the wilderness, to worship the 
I AM. Your attention is now called to two points in this 
remarkable mission, either one of which certainly required 
more than human power to execute : First, Moses has to 
meet king, priests and magicians, who were unexcelled in 
their time, by playing the magician's or necromancer's art, 
so that any attempt to perform miracles must be public 
and genuine, or the fraud would be quickly detected and 
exposed. The authority of the priests was considered as 
divine and was universally accepted. The labor of the 
slaves was for the personal benefit of the king, he fairly 
owning them in his own right. It required, then, no ordi- 
nary courage to demand of him their emancipation, which 
was to be immediate and without reward. Secondly, on 
the other hand, he must win the confidence of a people 
through their local rulers, who are strangers to him and to 
the government and the religion they would be expected 
to embrace ; who are now scattered over much of Lower 



THE JEWISH TABERNACLE. 



Egypt, and over whom he must gain command, however 
discouraged they may be by a long and cruel oppression, 
habituated no doubt to Egyptian customs and at least 
tainted with Egyptian superstition. They must be in- 
duced, through their local and tribal rulers, to throw off 
the yoke of Pharaoh and follow an old man and stranger, 
in search of a promised better country known to them 
only by dim tradition as promised to their common father, 
Abraham, more than half a millennium before. What 
would be thought of the course of any reasonable number 
of men, each possessing extraordinary talent as orator 
and logician, were they to try in 1883 to persuade all the 
men and women of Indiana (a less number than Moses led 
into the wilderness ) to follow them into some Northwest 
Territory and obligate themselves to come under a new 
form of government and a new religion? The cry would 
be, ■"Impossible." Yet remember this was just the task 
Moses had to perform. It could not have been accom- 
plished without God's presence. 

Slaves then were the property of the king alone, not 
held, as in modern times, in small numbers by the land- 
holders of a country. You have anticipated the reply that 
Moses received when he made known to the heartless 
ruler his mission. The request was treated with contempt, 
and the poor, unpaid toilers, instead of a brief respite from 
labor, had their tasks nearly doubled, and though thirty- 
five centuries have rolled away, we hear them justly com- 
plaining of the bitterness of their hard lot. But the poor 
slaves whom Moses sought to benefit charge him with 
being the author of their new calamity, and so instead of 
being attracted to him, they are, in the bitterness of their 
disappointment, driven from him, and thus his task is all 
the more difficult to perform. 1 

The first audience with the king and court was gained 



i8 



THE JEWISH TABERNACLE. 



about the first of April. After two months had passed, 
Moses sought a second interview with the great and pow- 
erful monarch, when commenced a series of plagues, three 
times three in number, each plague more fearful than its 
predecessor, culminating with the tenth and last, which 
found at the dawn after the fearful passover night a dead 
first born in every Egyptian dwelling, and among all the 
beasts of their fields. But it was the last night of servi- 
tude. Weeping parents, from the king on his throne to 
the maid at the mill, gladly at last bade them go, and 
many gave them jewels of silver and jewels of gold as 
some compensation — may we not hope? — for long service 
and cruel wrongs. 

4 'The Jewish rabbis have not been slow to observe 
the regular order in which these successive strokes are ar- 
ranged, and the gradual advance which they make from 
the external to the internal, and from the mediate to the 
immediate hand of God, .They are ten in number, which 
is one of the numbers denoting perfection. They are 
divided first into nine and one, the last one standing 
clearly apart from all the others, in the awful shriek of 
woe which it draws forth from every Egyptian home. 
The nine are arranged in threes." — Murphy. 

These plagues occupied a year in duration. All the 
gods of the Egyptians were attacked, and, in their judg- 
ment, put to shame. Their Nile, the earth, air, cattle, 
sun, etc., etc. 

Having made due preparation for the journey, by slay- 
ing the passover lamb, eating it with bitter herbs, with 
staves in their hands and sandals on their feet, at a given 
signal they take up their line of march for the Red Sea, 
which they reached in perhaps three days. Their deliver- 
ance from, and the destruction of, their enemies caused 
them to break forth in their first hymn of praise, being 



THE JEWISH TABERNACLE. 



I 9 



sung by Moses and his people, with the women singing 
the refrain, led by Miriam the prophetess. 

In three days more after their successful passage of the 
Sea, wrought by the hand of God, they reach Marah, the 
waters of which they could not drink. Here they utter 
their second wail against Moses for bringing them out of 
Egypt. But by miracle the waters were sweetened. It 
may have been the intention of their Divine leader to teach 
them, by successive steps, to trust in him for deliverance, 
whether from physical or spiritual ills. Be this as it may, 
they were but two hours' march, or seven miles, from Elim, 
where the grateful shade of the seventy lovely palm-trees 
awaited them, together with the twelve sweet fountains of 
water and an abundance of herbage for flocks and herds. 
How many of us stop and complain at Marah, with 
4i Elim " just before. 

"I've found a glad hosannah 

For every woe and wail ; 
A handful of sweet manna, 

When grapes of Eschol fail. 
I 've found a Rock of Ages, 

When desert wells are dry ; 
And after weary stages 

I 've found an Elim nigh." 

Let us trust in God for the fountain of life, with its un- 
failing waters ever at hand. From Elim, after a few days j 
of rest, they encamp in the Wilderness of Sin, near the ;! 
lower part of the Gulf of Suez, the left-hand arm of the 
Red Sea. Here they give way to their third murmurings. 
They had, up to this time, been on their journeyings 
something over thirty days. The food with which they 
started had become exhausted. As they thought, starva- 
tion only was before them. In their despair they appealed 
to Moses, who had been their deliverer three times before, 
for help. Into his name they had been baptized in the 



20 



THE JEWISH TABERNACLE. 



cloud and in the sea.* He was their saviour. He carried 
their petition to God (as Christ propitiates for us), and 
his appeal was heard and their cry was hushed. Manna 
rained down and rested on every blade of grass. Quails in 
abundance supplied them with meat.f The murmurers 
are not all dead yet. When I hear the unreasonable com- 
plaints of so many in our day, I almost marvel that the 
good God does not permit the seed-time and harvest to 
fail. The Jews at this time were but children, ever forget- 
ful of God's great goodness. We are living by the light 
and experience of six thousand years of the world's his- 
tory, and should be more trustful than we are in the 
mercy and goodness of our God. 

Leaving Dophka and the Wilderness of Sin, they ar- 
rive at Alush, where they view the waters of the Red Sea 
for the last time, and turn into the heart of the Cape of 
Sinai, through what is now known as Wady Feiran. It 
was a march of but forty miles to Rephidim, where their 
murmurs were again heard. They had forgotten their 
glorious hymn of praise and victory at the Red Sea: 
" Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods? who 
is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing 
wonders ? " 

At the command of God, Moses went before the people, 
and with his rod smote the rock in Horeb, and their thirst 
was slaked. At this time, also, Amalek, a distant rela- 
tive, challenged to battle and was "discomfited" by 
Joshua. From this point to Sinai was less than forty 
miles. They encamp on the desert of Sinai, which has an 
elevation of 5,100 feet above the sea. Sinai is a huge 
mountain block, two miles long and one mile wide. It is 
bounded by a narrow valley on either side, a large one at 
the southeast extremity, and a spacious plain at the north- 

*I. Cor. x. 12. t Ex - xvi - 



THE JEWISH TABERNACLE. 



21 



east end. It has in former years been a favorite argument 
with skeptics to declare that nowhere in - the Sinai district 
could the number of people mentioned by Moses have 
seen, for want of room, what Moses declares transpired 
there. To settle this and many other questions of import- 
ance, the Palestine Exploration Society sent out, in the 
winter of 1868-69, a party of thirteen persons, under the 
leadership of Capts. Wilson and Palmer, royal engineers, 
who surveyed some six hundred square miles, and estab- 
lished beyond a doubt the true Sinai, which heretofore 
had been under dispute. This survey established the fact 
that not only two or three millions of people could have 
been eye witnesses to the descent of " cloud and fire," but 
that the desert of Sinai alone was sufficient to give each 
person nine square feet upon which to stand. Mt. Sinai 
rose like a mighty wall 1,730 feet above the desert, while 
the highest point of this mount rose 553 feet higher. The 
desert of Sinai was 4,000 feet above the sea level (Palmer's 
Desert of the Exodus). ' ' Ye came near and stood under a 
mountain." * "A mount that could be touched." f The 
wadies ' ' set bounds about the mount. "J " Moses brought 
the people forth out of the camp to meet with God." § 

At the base of Sinai this nomadic horde is changed 
from a people fleeing from persecution to a great nation 
chosen of the Lord. Up to this point, without any aid of 
their own, they had been borne "on wings of eagles." 
They are now to be to God ' ' a holy nation. " Moses com- 
municates to the Israelites the result of his frequent com- 
munings with God, and their reply is: "All the words 
which the Lord hath spoken will we do." || Bounds were 
set to the mountain, and the people saw it enveloped in a 
cloud of darkness, as "the smoke of a furnace." Moses 
wrote down their law and then read it to the people, and 



* Deut. iv. 41. f Heb - xii - l8 - t Ex - xix - 2 3- § Ex - xix ' 11 Ex - xxiv ' 3 " 



22 



THE JEWISH TABERNACLE. 



they repeated, ' ' All that the Lord hath said will we do 
and be obedient." Moses, as daysman, took the blood 
of calves and goats, with scarlet wool and hyssop, and 
sprinkled the people and the parchment from which he 
had read, which represented God's will. Thus, by the 
covenant on parchment — representing God, the party of 
the first part, and the children of Israel, the party of the 
second part — they were, in the most solemn and sacred 
manner known, bound to each other — the one as King, 
the other as subjects.* 

Moses ascends the mountain, at the command of God, 
where he spends forty days and nights in receiving com- 
mandments upon tables of stone, the civil law in his 
mind, and viewing the patterns of the tabernacle as they 
are let down from heaven. ( See Exodus, 24th to 40th 
chapters.) The delay of Moses caused a rebellion of the 
people, and upon his return the leaders, three thousand in 
number, were put to death, f A second time he is called 
to the top of Sinai, where for forty other days and nights 
he communes with God, similarly as before. Upon his re- 
turn to the camp of Israel, Bezaleel and Aholiab were 
the men selected as master-builders, and were inspired to 
construct the first building, with which the ingenuity of man 
had nothing to do. Men and women who were skilled in 
dyeing and weaving, in working in wood and metal, were 
called to their assistance. In about six months after their 
arrival at Sinai they were ready to lay upon the sacred 
altar their first sacrifice to their great Deliverer. It was 
two years from the time Moses sought the first interview 
with the king of Egypt, and fourteen days less than one 
year from the night of their departure from the land of 
their enslavement. All offerings were made by the author- 
ity and command of God. 

* Heb. ix. 19; Ex. xxiv 8. fEx. xxxii. 28. 



THE JEWISH TABERNACLE. 23 

The tabernacle was pitched in the center of the twelve 
tribes, God always dwelling in the midst of His people. 
This was His visible presence. He now dwells in the 
hearts of all true believers in His Son, through the Holy 
Spirit. But how ? No believer will doubt that the taber- 
nacle was the place God elected to dwell in on earth. The 
necessity of this none will be likely to question, as man 
was being taught, step by step, how to acceptably worship 
the true and living God ; and so neither will any be likely 
to challenge the wisdom of God in choosing just this plan to 
accomplish such a result. Now what were the conse- 
quences of choosing this course, upon His people and His 
enemies? The awful history of those who interfered with 
His residence contrary to His law, is given us in the deaths 
and plagues of Nadab, Abihu, Korah, Dathan, Abiram, of 
Hophni and Phineas, the Philistines, etc., etc. When, 
after four hundred and fifty years, God's residence was 
transferred to the temple, we read in Daniel, Matthew, 
Mark, Luke, and doubtless Revelation (4th to 18th chap- 
ters),' something of the awfulness of His people calling 
down upon themselves His displeasure, in the destruction 
of His chosen people and their holy city, with its grand 
temp le — all because they rejected Him and His word. 
As there was one tabernacle in which God dwelt,* so 
Christ has but one body f — the Church of the living God, 
or Church of Christ. In Acts vii. Stephen says God no 
longer dwells in temples made with human hands. Let no 
one be found creating human churches. No one can come 
to God unless they come into the body of Christ, and find 
and meet him there and there only. We partake of the 
one Spirit by being in the one body of Christ. Our King 
rules His people as all kings do— by His word — and 
whoever refuses to believe the word of the Spirit rejects 

•"Num. xvi. t E P h - !V - 



2 4 



THE JEWISH TABERNACLE. 



Christ. Christ dwells in his people only by the faith the 
people have in Him and His word. If the word of the 
Spirit is not believed, there can be no indwelling of the 
Spirit. Therefore, if God's word is disregarded, there can 
be no God dwelling in man.* 

The tabernacle, with its furniture, was set up in an en- 
closure 150 feet east and west by 75 feet north and south. 
It was enclosed by a cloth wall made of fine-twined linen. 
Posts of acacia, resting on bases of copper and capped with 
silver, were connected with each other by silver rods. The 
cloth wall was fastened to the silver rod by means of silver 
hooks. The tents of Israel could not be pitched nearer 
to this wall than 3,000 feet, which gave a large outer court. 
From north to south and east to west of the entire camp 
was about two miles. Three tribes on each side and each 
end protected the golden tent of God. The entrance at the 
eastern end was 30 feet wide, made of fine linen, wrought 
in needle work, in crimson, purple and blue colors, f The 
Levites being selected as guards, were divided according to 
their four families — Merarites on the north, Gershonites on 
the west, Kohathites on the south, while on the east 
were the families of Moses and Aaron. This tribe gave to 
the priests about 7,000 or more men as helpers. The first 
thing that attracts our attention upon passing this beauti- 
ful gateway is the altar of sacrifice, 7^ feet square by 4^ 
high. It was made of planks of acacia wood covered with 
plates of copper. It was filled with earth or unhewn stones. 
No other kind of altar was permitted. All offerings were 
slain at the north side of the altar, and nowhere else. I The 
offering was slain by the offerer, he placing one hand upon 
the head of his gift, thus indicating that he identified him- 
self with the offering. A female kid for a sin-offering, if a 
common Jew ; a male, if a ruler of a tribe ; a bullock, if a 

■■•See lecture Holy Place, f Ex. xxvii. 16. J Num. i.-n. 



THE JEWISH TABERNACLE. 



25 



priest ; and a bullock, if the whole nation sinned. These 
provisions were made only for sins of ignorance* The 
blood of the offering was taken by the priest, who touched 
the four horns of the altar with it, pouring the remainder 
at its base. The fat — - the richest and best of the gift — 
was consumed by fire before the Lord on the altar. The 
bodies of the sacrifices for the priests or nation were con- 
sumed in a clean place " without the camp." A lamb 
was slain and offered as a sacrifice morning and evening 
of every week day ; on the Sabbath, two in the morning 
and two in the evening. All sacrifices must be offered 
with salt.f Solomon's altar was 30 feet square and 15 feet 
high; Herod's, 75 feet square and 22 ]/ 2 feet high. 

Passing from the altar, our next point of observation is 

THE LAVER. 

It was made of the mirrors of the women, consisting of 
highly polished pieces of copper, and was a free-will offer- 
ing. While the size is not given, all authorities agree that 
it must have been quite large, as every sacrifice must be 
washed before being offered on the altar, and the priests 
at their consecration were washed in the laver in the pres- 
ence of the congregation, who stood on the outside of the 
cloth wall. The high priest, on every atonement day, had 
also to bathe his entire person in the laver before he could 
enter the Holy of Holies. To pass to and from the altar 
without bathing hands and feet was to suffer the penalty of 
death. 

Passing the laver, we find ourselves before the beau- 
tiful golden tent of the Lord. Five pillars of wood, 
covered with gold, and resting upon copper bases, stand 
yy 2 feet in front of the tabernacle proper, and the outside 
pillars the same distance out from each side. This gave 



:: Lev. iv. I Speaker's Commentar}', p. 380 



26 



THE JEWISH TABERNACLE. 



7}i feet protection on each side and each end. It also 
furnished a resting-place for the high priest the week pre- 
vious to the atonement, when he was not permitted to go 
outside this enclosure, for fear of being rendered unclean, 
and thus prohibited from entering the Holy of Holies. 
Let any one read Palmer's " Desert of the Exodus," and 
he will be convinced that no flat-roofed tent, with flapping 
curtains, could ever have withstood the freaks of the wind 
that for so many thousands of years has capered around the 
rocky district of Sinai, to say nothing of the impossibility 
of its withstanding the early and the latter rain, without a 
pitched roof, well corded and staked, as required in Exo- 
dus xxvii. 19, and xxxv. 18. At Lakeside, Ohio, I heard 
a lecturer declare in favor of a flat roof, and in proof of his 
position affirmed twice in emphatic terms, that the Bible 
said nothing about cords and tent-pins for the building. 

This building, with all its appurtenances, cost in round 
numbers $1,500,000. The tabernacle proper was the 
golden portion with its first curtain. It was 45 feet long, 
1 5 feet wide and 1 5 feet high. The ' ' tent of the taber- 
nacle " referred to the entire structure. For the width, 
length and thickness of the boards, their covering of gold, 
the silver blocks weighing 95 pounds each, etc., see Exo- 
dus xxvi., where the plain and full teaching is given. The 
center fastenings of the first curtain were of gold, while those 
of the second, or goat's hair cloth, were of copper, showing 
the superiority of the inside over the outside. These cur- 
tains can not be made to answer the requirements of Scrip- 
ture when arranged otherwise than shown in the engrav- 
ings. The light of day was excluded from the tabernacle. 
Closely fitting curtains fell down in the front or east end of 
the building. The tabernaele was divided into two rooms, 
called the Holy Place and Holy of Holies. The Holy 
Place was 30 feet long, and 1 5 feet in width and height. It 



THE JEWISH TABERNACLE. 



27 



contained three articles of golden furniture. On the left 
as you enter, and on the sunny side, stood the golden 
lamp-stand, made of a talent of gold, and valued, with its 
snuffers and dishes, at $27,000. It had seven lamps, 
which were filled and trimmed at the time of the offer- 
ing of sacrifices on the outer altar, and gave the only 
light permitted in this room. On the right stood the table 
of shew-bread, or rather "Table of the Presence." It was 
36 inches long, 18 inches wide, and 27 inches high, made 
of wood and covered with gold. On it two piles of bread 
were placed, with six loaves in each pile — a loaf for each 
of the twelve tribes. Each loaf was made of six pounds 
and a quarter of flour,* seasoned with salt, as all offerings 
were required to be, whether "food" or "animal" gifts. 
On each pile was placed a golden cup containing frankin- 
cense, f A golden cup containing wine sat upon each end 
of the table, for a drink-offering to the Lord, which always 
accompanied the offering of flour, called the " food-offer- 
ing," whether in loaves or not. 

THE GOLDEN ALTAR, 

Or Altar of Incense, stood immediately in front of the 
"beautiful vail." On it rested the golden bowl for receiv- 
ing the coals of fire from the altar, and the incense which 
was burned " before the Lord " morning and evening, sim- 
ultaneously with offerings on the outer altar. Fire from 
that altar dropped into the golden bowl covered with a 
handful of sweet spices, stacte, onyscha, galbanum and 
frankincense, in equal parts, quickly filling the building 
with a grateful incense offered to the Lord. 

Beyond the vail none but the high priest might enter, 
and. he but once during the year, and then not without 
blood. 

* Lev. xxiv. 5. t Ib id. Ex. xxv. 23-30. 



28 



THE JEWISH TABERNACLE. 



" THE VAIL," * 

Made of the finest material about the building, of crimson, 
purple and blue linen, was of perfect workmanship, made 
to appear alike on both sides, and having cherubim 
worked facing into both apartments. 

Passing by the vail, the high priest stood within the 
Holy of Holies, a room representing a cube of 15 feet. 

1. 

Within the True most Holy Place 

Our great High Priest appears, 
Perfected, for our sinful race, 

By sufl'rings, prayers and tears. 

11. 

He passed by death the fleshly vail 

With His atoning blood ; 
Nor shall His intercession fail 

Before the throne of God. 

in. 

His government shall still increase, 

And glorious is His rest — 
The righteous King — the Prince of peace — 

The ever-living Priest. 

IV. 

His intercession shall not close 

In the Divine abode, 
Until He saves each one of those 

" Who by Him comes to God." 
Sept. 28, 1883. — L. H. Jameson. 

The only article of furniture in this apartment was the 
"Ark of the Testimony." It was 3 feet, pinches long, 
and 2 feet, 3 inches wide and high, and covered inside and 
outside with gold. Upon it and for a cover was a lid and 
two cherubim made of one piece of gold. In it were at 
first the tables of stone or ten commandments. It was re- 
garded as the throne of God. 



* Heb. x. 19-21. 



THE JEWISH TABERNACLE. 



2 9 



Having gone about the building and through it, a legit- 
imate subject for inquiry would be : What was all this 
display and magnificent ritualism, which was to descend 
from age to age, for ? The time had arrived when God 
saw fit to grant to man a revealed and written religion, 
adapted to the race as it then existed. He did not choose 
the proud, arrogant, yet cultured (for the age) Egyptians, 
but chose to show his Almighty power through a despised 
race,. that for hundreds of years had been held as serfs of 
the king that ruled over the wealthiest and wisest kingdom 
on the earth. It has been objected that this religion was 
one of blood. So far as we know, no believer in Chris- 
tianity has ever offered any apology on account of such a 
charge. 

It ought not to be forgotten by objectors that there 
is the difference of 3,500 years between the time of 
Moses and our swiftly passing nineteenth century — a time 
when object writing obtained universally. God designed to 
teach this people, by means of costly sacrifices and impos- 
ing ritual services, His holiness and their sinfulness. To 
this end they were separated from the whole world, and at 
the base of Sinai they were "set apart," by the sprink- 
ling of blood upon them, as a consecration to God. After 
the setting up of the tabernacle, a second step was taken 
to bring this people nearer to God's presence. The whole 
nation could not appear in the inner " court," and Moses, 
commanded the Levites to be set apart to represent the 
nation, and to render any assistance necessary in this place. 
Sacrifices were slain and offered upon the altar ; the nation 
was called upon to place their hands upon the Levites' 
heads, after they had shaved and washed themselves in 
preparation for their consecration, and in turn the Levites 
placed their hands upon the heads of the sacrifices, one of 
the bullocks for a "sin," and the other for a "burnt" 



3o 



THE JEWISH TABERNACLE. 



offering unto the Lord, to make an atonement or covenant 
for the Levites.* 

The third step toward approaching God was the setting 
apart of Aaron and his sons to their sacred offices as 
priests. The whole tribe of Levi could not be admitted 
beyond the inner court. Aaron and his sons will repre- 
sent it, and all the other tribes, in the Holy Place. They 
are washed in the laver by Moses, and then clothed in 
their priestly robes, f Aaron is now separated from his 
sons, which is the fourth step taken to approach the sym- 
bol of God's presence. He is clothed with more costly 
robes, and oil is poured upon him, which is not upon his 
sons, as he is the high priest, the only person who can 
lawfully enter the Holy of Holies. Six days are spent in 
this holy consecration. The setting apart of the Levites, 
it appears, was last, but we have arranged it to be more 
easily remembered in this form, and it does no violence to 
the record : 

1. The nation, at Sinai, separated from the world. 

2. The Levites from the nation. 

3. The priests from the Levites. 

4. Aaron from his sons. 

When the atonement day came around, the priest must 
bathe himself, offer a pure animal washed, and after burn- 
ing incense in the Holy of Holies, offer blood sprinkled 
upon the Mercy-seat between the cherubim, where the 
Shekinah rested beneath their faces. In all this prepara- 
tion, requiring fasting and sacrifices, God was not reached ; 
only the bright light which represented His presence. 
Thus, step by step, they were taught the purity and holi- 
ness of their God, into whose presence they could not un- 
ceremoniously appear. The main work of Moses was now 
accomplished. His office was that of mediator for the 



* Num. viii. f Lev. viii. 



THE JEWISH TABERNACLE. 



31 



people before God, and when the nation had accepted of 
God as their leader and king, the office of mediator was no 
longer a necessity. The organization of the nation, the 
giving of the law, civil and religious, and putting it in 
working order by the consecration of the priesthood, is 
the mediator's only task. But God knew the people 
would violate His holy ordinances and commands. To 
provide for their sins of ignorance, that they might be 
atoned for, the office of the priesthood is created, with the 
list of " gifts" the sinner might bring to the altar. 

Moses is a type of Christ as mediator for the sinner. 
Aaron is a type of Christ as intercessor for the saint who 
unpremeditatingly violates the will of the Saviour of men. 
It took these brothrers to represent Jesus in his double 
office as mediator and intercessor, as it took the two goats 
to represent the sacrifice, death and resurrection of our 
Lord, on behalf of a perishing world. The office of me- 
diator closed with the mediation of the nation, while the 
priestly office perished only with the offering of sacri- 
fices. The office of Mediator with Christ ends with 
the sinner's acceptance of Him, but his priestly office is 
perpetual, or coequal with time. Everything about the 
worship of the Jews was the opposite of that of the Egyp- 
tian teaching. Egyptian priests mingled with the people ; 
exhibited the sacred furniture of their granite temples to 
the multitude to excite their adoration, and worshiped 
domestic animals, small and great, as gods. Parallel with 
the simple and solemn worship of the Jews, offered to the 
true God, the Greeks, Romans and Carthagenians were 
worshiping beasts and idols, sun and stars, and mingling 
with the blood of beasts the blood of human beings — not 
unfrequently their own offspring — to appease the wrath 
or win the favor of their sanguinary deities. These Jews, 
the despised people of Jehovah — these husbandmen and 



32 THE JEWISH TABERNACLE. 

shepherds, were peacefully pursuing their calling and sol- 
emnly worshiping the one true and living God. Only five 
beasts of all in the world could be slain : the bullock, lamb, 
kid, turtle-dove and young pigeon. These were distin- 
guished as clean beasts ; all others were unclean. 

It was, it must have been, by Divine direction that each 
step was taken. A perfect animal, purified by washing, 
offered by a priest " set apart" by purification, sacrifices 
and fasting, was accepted by God for the offences of His 
people ignorantly committed. The power and force of 
sacrifices for the offenses of men and language are unit- 
izes. Blend these ideas and you have the basis of 
national unity. All mankind are conscious of having 
given offense to some superior being. "The soul carries 
in itself a sense of its own immortal destiny. This is not 
found to be peculiar to any age, or to any form of cultiva- 
tion." They are conscious of a desire to expiate or atone 
in some form for their offenses, and the necessity of ex- 
pressing their emotion by language, in a petitionary form, 
to such superior being. Language and expiation (I do 
not like the term expiation ) are always blended together, 
and bind each individual person to one common superior. 
When individuals are aggregated into states or nations, 
such a nation, like the Jews, becomes a unit. Destroy ex- 
piation and the language of petition, and the masses would 
become segregated and lose their affinity, and we soon 
have what succeeded the flood — Babel. 

Religion, if we may so call the moral economy of God 
before the flood and for a thousand years after, was universal 
— as it is now. .It was for all men. But the truth of God 
became so dim and shadowy by the wickedness of man, 
that God wisely determined that His truth should for a 
time be conserved by a single nation. All the truth of the 
past was gathered up and placed in the keeping of the 



♦ 



THE JEWISH TABERNACLE. 



33 



Jews. Nothing was lost. But for all this elaborate wor- 
ship, man was only emerging from his childhood, and we 
must look to the future for that which is more than shad- 
owy or figurative in worship. We can not linger here 
where we have no rights. We have already learned 
enough *to teach us that God is irreconcilable to sin, and 
that He was ever endeavoring to lead the nation out of 
darkness into light, from a state of rebellion against his 
authority, to loyalty to His reign and His law. 

The God of the Hebrews was distinguished from the 
gods of all other nations, as the only being who would 
allow of no rivals. His people must not acknowledge 
Him merely as the Deity, but they must forever have no 
other gods in their minds. All the nations were poly- 
theistic in worship save the Jews. How could the theistic 
idea be developed by a race which had just emerged from 
bondage, whose surroundings were all opposed to their 
becoming in any sense a beacon light to the world upon 
this subject? Only by God revealing himself, as Moses 
has recorded it in the " books of the law." 

To the reader of ancient history it will be seen that the 
foundation of the Jewish religion was entirely dissimilar 
from that of any other ancient form of worship. The 
mythology of Greece and Rome has never been put to the 
crucial test of a merciless criticism by able minds for hun- 
dreds of years, from the fact that it bears upon its face the 
stamp, "unknown," as to its origin, and its destiny was 
"oblivion," as a religion. 

Apollo, one of the many gods of the "cultured" 
Greeks, and the Jehovah of the shepherd Jews were never 
subjects of comparison. Israel, worshiping one true and 
living God, in less than a year from their emancipation 
from a slavery that had hung over them for centuries; 
while those who enslaved them were worshipers of the 



24 THE JEWISH TABERNACLE. 

beasts of the field as gods, which, when they died, were 
embalmed and placed with pomp in costly sepulchers. 
Greece and Rome mingled the blood of human beings 
with the blood of beasts up to within the memory of men 
who might have witnessed the crucifixion of the Saviour. 
How can this difference — which, so far as natural causes 
are concerned, is in favor of the Egyptians, Grecians and 
Romans — be explained? But in one way: God revealed 
himself to Moses, and the plan of worship revealed to him 
was taught to the nation, who became, by their own con- 
sent, a " chosen people unto the Lord." 

We shall now see what the religion of the Jews had to 
do with the teachings of the Saviour of men. One a 
"shadow," a "figure" of the true religion for fifteen hun- 
dred years, yet in no way related to it, save as a shadow 
may be related to a substance. We shall not suffer disap- 
pointment in consulting our oracle, as were the "cult- 
ured" Greeks, when imploring light from their Delphic 
divinity. 

Before reading the second Lecture, please take your 
Bible and carefully study the Book of Exodus and the 
eighth, ninth and tenth chapters of Hebrews. 



LECTURE II. 



From the earliest history of man, object teaching has 
accomplished more in the way of enlightening the mind 
than any other plan ever adopted. Anciently it was the 
only means of communication or writing history, as it is 
to-day among the semi-civilized and barbarous tribes of 
men. With them it is all object writing. You under- 
stand its potency in the school-room with the black-board. 
You are satisfied of its power to instruct the mind, as you 
watch your children as they gaze so intently upon the 
beautiful pages of their picture-books. Object teaching is 
intensely interesting and instructive to us all — hence, 
doubtless, God chose this plan to teach man his duty to 
his Creator and to himself. 

In conversing or writing upon the subject of types, 
we frequently misapprehend the meaning of "types" 
and "symbols." In making no difference between them, 
our minds become confused in tracing out the antitype. 
The Church of God has types ; the kingdom of God has 
symbols. The Church of God was typified; the king- 
dom of God was symbolized. In other words, when 
Christ is named as a "king," it is not said he is king 
over the Church ; nor when named as a priest, is it said he 
is priest over a kingdom. It is true we have combined in 
Christ what we had in Melchisedek — king and priest at 
the same time. As a king, he made laws ; as a priest, he 

(37) 



38 THE JEWISH TABERNACLE. 

executed them. No priest ever made laws as a priest. 
Melchisedek, as a king, was a symbol of Christ as king ; 
as a priest, a type of Christ as priest. The tabernacle and 
its furniture was a type of the Church, but was not a sym- 
bol of anything. The image of Nebuchadnezzar was a 
symbol, but not a type of anything. The beasts in 
Daniel's vision were symbols, but not types. A type 
must have for its antitype a thing like itself. If I step 
into a printer's office and take from his case a letter " C," 
ink it, and stamp it down on clean white paper, it brings 
out, not a leaden block? but a letter " C," as its antitype, 
of which the letter "C," cast in metal, was the type. But 
a symbol is not at all like that which it symbolizes. Nebu- 
chadnezzar had a dream, but could not recall it. His 
astrologers he accused of lying, and threatened every one 
of them with death. A Hebrew captive, whose name was 
Daniel, averted their doom by recalling the dream and 
giving the interpretation of it. It is not likely that the 
image seen by the king in his dream, ' 4 which was terri- 
ble," with its head of gold, its breasts and arms of silver, 
its thighs of brass, its legs of iron, and its feet of iron and 
clay mixed, was less grand in its proportions than the 
image he actually raised in the plains of Dura, ninety feet 
high and nine feet broad, made of gold (probably covered 
with gold). 

The interpretation revealed the four great universal 
empires that succeeded each other in the course of six 
hundred years: Babylonian, Medo-Persian, Greek and 
Roman. Now this " great and terrible image" did not 
represent or picture in any possible sense the more than a 
hundred provinces over which the king ruled, with men 
and women aggregated into a great and mighty empire, 
the richest in the world, and represented by the massive 
head of gold. 



THE JEWISH TABERNACLE. 



39 



The eagle is our symbol of freedom, but in no sense a 
type of 50,000,000 of people, busied in carrying on their 
industries, trade and commerce. A horn was a symbol of 
power, and often symbolized kings. A horn on the head 
of a beast is his weapon, offensive or defensive ; hence, 
there lies the beast's power. A horn, then, is a symbol 
of power; but a horn bears no resemblance to a man, 
while a letter " C " on paper looks like a letter " C " cast 
in metal. The '4 twelve loaves of the presence" in the 
tabernacle were changed every seventh day, and they typi- 
fied the "one loaf of the presence," to be eaten every 
seventh day. It was the seventh day that was typified, 
and the loaf was an auxiliary ; and yet the loaves are alike. 
A table with twelve loaves resembles a table with one loaf, 
and every seventh day resembles any other seventh day. 
A type of one of Barnum's "Great Moral Exhibition" 
show-bills, with lions, elephants, etc., is seen by your little 
boy, and he tries to take in your explanation of the differ- 
ent animals. By and by, "on day and date," it comes 
along. Church people abhor a circus, but an "exhibi- 
tion," with "sacred animals," you know; and the "little 
pets" must learn all they can of natural history by "ob- 
ject-teaching." Your boy, armed with his picture or 
4 'type" of the animals, shouts his joyous recognition of 
them in your ears when found, and in vain you try to per- 
suade him the archetype of the picture of the lion is a 
monkey. If the type was true, he knew the archetype at a 
glance. 

You now have my idea of the type and the antitype, 
and we are now ready to examine the courts, tabernacle 
and furniture used by the twelve tribes of Israel in their 
worship. ' I have been more careful in distinguishing be- 
tween "type" and "symbol," because every writer I 
have read after uses the terms interchangeably. All out- 



40 THE JEWISH TABERNACLE. 

side the enclosure of the tabernacle was called the worldly 
sanctuary, or type of the world. Here all the mistakes of 
life were committed, and here the resolves to reform were 
made. The gateway, altar and offering were the dividing 
line between a sinning Jew without faith and a sinning Jew 
with faith. Had the Jew a desire to be reconciled to God, 
he know there was but one place in the world at this time 
where that reconciliation could take place. It was at the 
north side of the great altar. He knew there was but one 
offering he could bring, if able to procure it : A private 
person, a female kid or lamb ; a ruler, a male kid or lamb ; 
and if a priest, a bullock — always without blemish. The 
sinner brought it to the north side of the altar, placed his 
hand upon the head of his gift, confessed his offense, and 
with his own hand slew it. The priest caught the blood 
in a basin, dipped his finger in it and touched the four 
horns of the altar, and then poured the remainder at its 
base. The priest then flays the offering, disembowels it, 
cuts it in pieces, and places the richest, sweetest and best 
— the fat, etc.— upon the altar, to be consumed before the 
Lord. If a priest sins, the blood of the bullock is 
sprinkled seven times before the beautiful vail, and the 
horns of the altar of "sweet incense" are touched with 
blood, and the fat burned on the altar; but the entire 
body of the bullock is burned without the camp. If the 
offerer, as he watched the eye of his gift grow glassy in 
death, ' and the crimson tide of blood ebbing quickly and 
freely away, had been asked what connection there was 
between the pardon of sin and the death of his lamb, he 
could not have told. If asked, Why offer the sacrifice? 
he would have said, "Because the God of my fathers com- 
manded it. It was He who delivered them from bondage, 
who rescued them from Pharaoh and the Red Sea, and 
who fed them in the wilderness. All this I know, and I 



THE JEWISH TABERNACLE. 4 1 

will hearken to His command." Should any man be 
asked to give the logical connection between the death of 
Christ and the forgiveness of sin, the answer might not be 
at hand, though our faith remain undisturbed. So should 
I ask the wisest of earth to give me a logical connection 
between eating food and the growth of hair and bones, 
strengthening of muscles, etc., no man could do so, and 
yet every man believes in the results just as sincerely as if 
every step could be demonstrated with mathematical ac- 
curacy. 

But the common Jew had gone as far as he could. Be- 1 
yond the north side of the altar he is represented by the 
priest, incarnated in him. He saw the innocent die for 
the guilty, and the smoke of his sacrifice ascend heaven- 
ward. The Jew wished to be represented inside the taber- 
nacle. As every step taken by the priest was a type of 
the sinner now coming to Christ, I earnestly invite your at- 
tention to these regular and heaven-ordained successive 
steps. 

In the Church of God all are priests who believe in and 
obey Christ. The sinner, hearing the gospel faithfully 
proclaimed, realizes his lost and undone condition, and 
comes to Christ believing on Him who is the altar, priest 
and offering.* As Paul says to the Colossians ( iii. I i), 
He is our "all in all." Without mental reservation, we 
present ourselves to God through Christ, body, soul and 
spirit. By faith in, or by believing in the gospel, we lay 
our hand upon Christ, who offered Himself for us— "a 
lamb without spot." The priest at the altar stands there 
representing the Jew, and is covered with filth and fat and 
blood, as men are now who slaughter and prepare the 
lamb for market. So comes the sinner to Christ polluted 

*I purposely avoid the harsh, unmeaning word, "victim." It is unknown to the 
Scriptures. Offering, sacrifice, and gift are Scripture terms. 



42 



THE JEWISH TABERNACLE. 



with sin. But why does he come ? Does he see Jesus ? 
Why mouth, however sincerely, the confession that He is 
the Christ? There is no question now upon the part of 
any as to whether Jesus, or such a person called Jesus 
eighteen hundred years ago, ever lived. The prince of 
blasphemers of the nineteenth century acknowledges that 
He lived, but he denies the New Testament account of 
His origin, though he has no trouble in believing that men 
who are charged with robbing the government of millions 
are as pure as the purest of earth. 

The only question for me to settle in my own mind is, 
"Did He ever live?" When I answer that to the satis- 
faction of my own conscience, all the rest concerning Him 
follows without a doubt. The life of David Livingstone 
in Africa, for a third of a century, is before me. I see he 
offered that life a sacrifice for the best good of many Afri- 
can tribes, especially the Makololas. Why did these bar- 
barian^ believe in him so implicity, whom they honored as 
the "great master"? Because he proved himself their 
truest friend. He never wronged, betrayed or deceived 
them. When wronged by others, he defended their cause ; 
when sick, he ministered to their necessities. He taught 
them how to live better lives, for their happiness here and 
hereafter. He did all this without reward from them, ex- 
cept as they pressed him to receive their gifts. How could 
they help but believe in and trust him? Had he per- 
mitted it, they would doubtless have worshiped him far 
more readily than did the Sandwich Islanders Capt. Cook. 
When Livingstone told them about another world (to 
them ) from whence he came, and the mighty waters he 
crossed that he might be a blessing to them, they believed 
every word he said. When he told them of the great na- 
tion he had left behind him, they accepted it without other 
proof. They knew that no such character was born in 



THE JEWISH TABERNACLE. 



43 



Africa, and did not refuse to be blessed by his wise coun- 
sels and noble life simply because they could not compre- 
hend all he said regarding the great country and people 
from whence he came, or the mighty waters crossed. 

In the New Testament I read of a greater than Living- 
stone—incomparably greater — who came from another 
world to light up the gross darkness of ours, to drive from 
all hearts that would be touched by his love, pain, sorrow 
and the fear of death ; having but one purpose before him 
— to help all the children of men to a better, nobler life ; 
to help you, to help me. He went about doing good al- 
ways, teaching men that there is a better life here, a better 
life in the world beyond, for all who will accept it. I read 
of only one such life in all the history of man. That pure 
life and that God-like death must have been borne by one 
not of time. One so many leagues in advance of all 
humanity must be of God and from another world ; and all 
that follows in accepting of Him as my Saviour, because I 
believe he lived, I readily accept without a mental reser- 
vation. So far we are satisfied that the type and antitype 
are complete. The Jew came to the altar because he de- 
sired to be obedient and please God. The sinner comes 
to Christ believing in him with all his heart, repenting of 
his sins in all sincerity, and confessing His name before 
heaven and earth in all honesty, for the reason that it is 
commanded, and offers to God the wine of his affection. 
He knows that God, who knows all things, knows he is sin- 
cere, and therefore his spirit and the Spirit of God bear 
witness to each other. We watch carefully the actions of 
the priest, that we may learn the next step in the type be- 
fore us. He leaves the altar and advances toward the tab- 
ernacle, but stops before 

THE LAVER. 

Why does he wait for a time here ? We take up our guide- 



44 



THE JEWISH TABERNACLE. 



book, which is the Bible, and learn that the High Priest 
and his sons, before they could officiate at the altar or 
enter the tabernacle, must be washed or bathed in the 
laver, in the presence of all the people ; that to approach 
the altar or tabernacle without washing hands and feet was 
death, the highest penalty known to man for violation of 
law. It demands, then, an honest and careful investiga- 
tion as to its meaning. At the altar the priest becomes 
polluted or filthy, and he must be purified from this pollu- 
tion or filth ; if not he could never enter the sacred build- 
ing- Water has always been regarded as being indued 
with purifying power, and the antithesis of filth and blood. 
The priests always washed to purify themselves before en- 
tering the holy place, the type of the Church. Therefore, 
believing penitents are not only baptized into Christ, their 
living head, but purified in this act of putting Him on 
(Gal. iii. 27), the last step taken in preparing ourselves 
for the priesthood and for entering the Holy Place, the 
type of the Church. 

On the subject of the laver, Atwater says "it had no 
special significance." Newton makes it everything beau- 
tiful, but just what it was designed to represent and 
teach. Needham almost commits himself when he says : 
" The laver symbolizes (typifies) the provision made for 
believers, who, as worshipers, draw near to God." All the * 
rest of his notes have no bearing upon the subject. It is sin- 
gular it had no " special significance," when the death pen- 
alty was attached to neglecting the service with which it was 
connected. The priests, after censenting to serve God, could 
not appear at the altar until after their consecration. No 
one but a priest could, under penalty of death, open the 
tabernacle curtains and look inside, when in readiness for 
offerings. Look at other testimony given by the best 
scholarship in the world on the subject of the laver. The 



THE JEWISH TABERNACLE. 



45 



Speaker's Commentary, edited by the "bishops and others 
clergy" of the Protestant Episcopal Church, comments on 
Ex. xxx. 19, 20, as follows: "Whenever a priest had to 
enter the tabernacle or offer an offering on the altar, he 
was required to wash his hands and feet ; but on certain 
solemn occasions he was required to bathe his whole per- 
son, as at his consecration to office."* Again, they say: 
f 1 Moses caused Aaron and his sons to bathe entirely — ■ 
not merely to wash hands and feet, as they were to do in 
their daily ministrations. This bathing, which the high 
priest had also to go through on the day of Atonement, 
was symbolical [typical] of the spiritual cleansing required 
by all,t but especially to those who had to draw near to 
God to make reconciliation for the sins of the people." || 
For a reiteration of the above, see Schaff-Herzog Ency., 
Vol. L, pp. 167 and 168. Lange, on Heb. viii. 23 : "We 
must recognize expressly a reference to baptism." See the 
entire , comment on this verse, which is very strong, fully 
endorsing all that has been quoted above. 

The Jamieson, Fausset & Brown Commentary (the first 
two authors being Episcopalians and the last a Presbyter- 
ian) says on these same verses (Ex. xxx. 19, 20) : "From 
standing at the entrance, it would be a familiar object. It 
possessed great interest and importance from the baptis- 
mal purposes to which it was applied (Lev. viii. 6). At 
the consecration [of the priests], they were subjected to 
entire ablution, though on ordinary occasions they were 
required, before entering their duties, only to wash hands 
and feet. This symbolical ablution was designed to teach 
them the necessity of inward purity." The same as bap- 
tism to believers now. The entrance of the tabernacle by 
the- priests must be without even sandals, that nothing 
defiling might by any possibility be carried into the 

*Ex. xxix. 4. t Lev. viii. 6. \ Cor. vii. i. | Lev. xvi. 4 . 



46 



THE JEWISH TABERNACLE. 



building. So in Rev. xxi. 25: "And there shall in no 
wise enter into it [the new heaven] any thing that de- 
fileth : neither whatsoever worketh abomination or maketh 
a lie." 

Jos. A. Seiss, D. D. (Lutheran), in his intensely interest- 
ing work called ' 'The Gospel in Leviticus, or Holy Types," 
on the subject of the laver, says: "And Moses brought 
Aaron and his sons and washed them with water. This 
was the first item in the service. [ After their consenting 
to serve God.] And what does it typify, but that 4 wash- 
ing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost ' shed 
on us abundantly, through Jesus Christ our Saviour? 
. . . I said a little while ago that God has sent forth 
and commissioned his ministers to set apart all men to be 
his priests. And that same commission prescribes how it 
is to be done, viz. : by ' baptizing them in the name of 
the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost' 
. But if we have the real faith to lay hold of the 
grace offered and proposed to us in our baptism, it be- 
comes to us the ' laver of regeneration ' — the burial of the 
old man and the quickening of the new man; 'that as 
Christ was raised up by the glory of the Father, even so 
we also should walk in newness of life. ' And this is the 
true washing of the Christian priest — the first item of his 
[outward] consecration to the holy ministry of eternal 
priesthood. 'Except we be born of water, and of the Spirit, 
we. can not enter into the kingdom of God. 

Dr. Patrick Fairbairn, one of the greatest writers on 
typology known, a professor of theology in the Divinity 
Free Church College (Presbyterian), Glasgow, Scotland, 
says : * ' ' ' Who shall ascend into the hill of God ? or who 
shall stand in His holy place? He that hath clean hands 
and a pure heart' f The symbol (type) here employed is 

* Vol. II., p. 253. t ps xxiv - 



THE JEWISH TABERNACLE. 47 

of so natural a kind and so fitly adapted for conveying spir- 
itual instruction to all ages of the Church, that it has been 
to some extent retained also in the New Testament dispen- 
sation in the rite of baptism. . . . There can be no 
question that the cleansing nature of the element is the 
natural basis of the ordinance and that from which it de- 
rives its appropriate character as the initiatory service of 
a Christian life. Symbolically [typically], it conveys the 
salutary instruction that he who becomes Christ's, and 
through Christ would dedicate himself to the work and 
service of God, must be purified from the filth and pollu- 
tion of sin [of which the altar was a type] ; he must be 
regenerated and made holy. Believers are therefore de- 
scribed as ' having their hearts sprinkled from an evil con- 
science, and their bodies washed with pure water. ' * . . . 
As Aaron had the sentence of death suspended over him, 
in case he should go about the ministrations of the tab- 
ernacle with unwashed hands or feet, so the services of 
ungodly persons, instead of procuring the blessings of God, 
only provoke the eyes of His glory, and prepare them for 
a heavier condemnation." 

If the type here is of any value, we have seen that 
Aaron and his sons must appear at the laver to be made 
priests. This shows, too, who can accept of Christian bap- 
tism—those who believe in Christ, in answer to the great 
commission of our Lord. John Wesley, in his doctrinal 
tracts, p. 251, asks: "But the great question is, Who 
are the proper subjects of baptism? grown persons only 
or infants also? In order to answer this fully, I shall, 
first, lay down the grounds of infant baptism, taken from 
Scripture, reason, and primitive, universal practice; and, 
second, answer the objections against it. As to the 
grounds of it, if infants are guilty of original sin, then 



* Heb. x. 22. 



48 THE JEWISH TABERNACLE. 

they are proper subjects of baptism — seeing, in the ordi- 
nary way, they can not be saved unless this be washed 
away by baptism. It has already been proved that this 
original stain cleaves to every child of man, and that 
hereby they are children of wrath, and liable to eternal 
damnation. . . . Infants need to be washed from 
original sin; therefore they are proper subjects of bap- 
tism." It will be seen that the type will not bear out this 
line of argument. 

In Clark's Commentary, on Ex. xxx. 20, and speaking 
of the laver, we find the following : 

This was certainly an emblematical [typical] washing; and as the 
hands and the feet are particularly mentioned, it must refer to the purity of 
their whole conduct. Their hands, all their works; their feet, all their 
goings, must be washed— must be holiness unto the Lord. This washing 
was needful, because the priests ministered barefoot, but it was equally so 
because of the guilt they may have contracted, for the washing was em- 
blematical of the putting away of sin, or what St. Paul calls the laver of 
regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost (Titus iii. 5). 

We have quoted amply from Episcopalian, Presbyterian, 
Lutheran and Methodist authority to show the significance 
of the laver as a type of Christian baptism, and from Mr. 
Wesley as to the great importance of the rite, that we might 
not appear to be straining the type in any sense whatever 
— although just as surely right, because it is the Divine ar- 
rangement. The reader will have observed that it required 
more than washing at the laver to gain admission into the 
Holy place ; therefore, he will conclude that baptism is not 
all that is required to gain admission into the Church, its 
antitype. The priest had no use for the laver unless filthy. 
The priest's washing was for the " filth of the flesh." The 
Christian's baptism is for the " answer of a good con- 
science toward God" (I. Pet. iii. 21). 

But it may be asked, If, in addition to. the entire ablu- 
tion of the priests, at their consecration to their sacred office, 



THE JEWISH TABERNACLE. 



51 



and the bath of the High Priest on every atonement day, 
there was the daily washing of the hands and feet, and 
these frequent ablutions were a type of Christian baptism, 
why is it administered but once under the new dispensa- 
tion? For the same reason that we do not witness the 
daily or yearly sacrifice of Christ on account of our sins. 
He died once for all ( Heb. ix. 24-28). The first cove- 
nant was faulty ; the second, under which we live, perfect. 
See the seven ones of Eph. iv. 1-6. 

The laver is the only cleansing type of baptism ( Acts 
xxii. 16).* The sinner, having left the altar, the type of 
sin and pollution, and having passed through the water of 
baptism — of which the laver was the cleansing type — by 
the authority of Christ, which was the crowning act of his 
initiation into the priesthood of the Church, is prepared 
to follow his Guide into the Holy place, the type of the 
Church. The members of Christ's body are " represent- 
ed " by Him in heaven. In the type the priesthood repre- 
sented the nation in the holy and Most Holy places. In 
the antitype all who accept Christ are priests and enter the 
holy place, the Church, to offer up spiritual sacrifices to 
God through Christ. The light of day being excluded 
from the sacred apartments, the first object that attracts 
our attention upon entering the Holy place is the lighted 
gold 

LAMP-STAND. 

It stands here as the type of the word of God, on the 
sunny side of the tabernacle, to give light. Before Jesus 
ascended into heaven, he told his disciples f ' 'that all 
things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of 
Moses and in the prophets and the Psalms concerning 
me." Jesus then divided the -Old Testament into Law, 



* Wesley's and Lange's Notes, f Luke xxiv. 44. 



5^ 



THE JEWISH TABERNACLE. 



Prophets and Psalms, represented by the three left-hand 
branches, whose lamps pointed forward. 

All we read in the Old Testament points us down the 
stream of time to some great person to come — the Mes- 
siah of the prophets. The lamp-stand had seven branches, 
a main shaft and three branches on each side of it. The 
center or main shaft was ornamented with four bowls,, 
knops and flowers, while the side branches had but three. 
The center shaft represents the facts of the birth, life, 
death, burial, resurrection, exaltation and coronation of 
Christ, whose life has been handed down to us by Mat- 
thew, Mark, Luke and John. When we read either of 
these authors we seem to stand in the immediate presence 
of Him of whom Moses and the prophets did write. We 
witness the solemn scene of His baptism in the Jordan, 
and His being Christed and acknowledged for the first 
time by the Father as His beloved Son. We see Him 
unstop the deaf ear, loose the tongue of the dumb, give 
sight to the blind, and give life back to the dead. On the 
Mount of Transfiguration we see Him, with Moses and 
Elijah, acknowledged the Supreme One of the three 
who had fasted forty days and forty nights. We see Him 
pass through the agonies of Gethsemane, the six mock 
trials, the awful scourging, and the more awful descent 
into the valley of humiliation, as he submitted to be 
mocked, spit upon and cruelly crowned with a wreath of 
thorns, and hailed with ridicule and jesting by Roman sol- 
diers as King. We witness the crucifixion in tears, and 
see the body at last laid away in the grave. But, behold ! 
in three days that grave gives back to the world and 
heaven its treasure. In forty days His farewell words are 
spoken, and Jesus the Son of God takes his flight for His 
heavenly home. 

Matthew wrote his life of Jesus for the benefit of the 



THE JEWISH TABERNACLE. 



53 



Jews; Mark, for the Romans; Luke, for the Grecians; 
and John, for the Asiatics, with whom he passed his old 
age. The Asiatics were worshipers of light, and John 
calls Jesus the " great light that should lighten every 
man," "the life and light of men," etc.* The first lamp 
to the right represented the preaching of the apostles in 
the name of Christ, or "Acts of the Apostles," as they 
went forth armed with the last words of the Saviour, or 
the "great commission." f 

Upon the delivery of their very first sermon, three 
thousand souls were made alive to Christ. £ On the deliv- 
ery of the law, three thousand perished. § When their 
second sermon was delivered, five thousand men accepted 
the Saviour as their only hope of a better life ; and under 
the joint efforts of the apostles and their helpers, hundreds 
of thousands, from Spain to Judaea, acknowledged Jesus 
as Lord, to the glory of God the Father, and became obe- 
dient to the faith, as recorded in the twenty-eight chap- 
ters of this most notable book. They all became priests 
to God through believing His word as taught by the apos- 
tles, and obeying His commandments. 

"The only way of admission into the office of the 
priesthood now, as of old, is by birth. Priests of the new 
dispensation must be sons of God. No human power can 
confer this rite ; no ecclesiastical confraternity can impart 
to any being privileges which can only come by birth." || 
We never name a child until after its birth, and no child 
can become an heir until after it is born. Three thousand 
heirs to eternal life were born on Pentecost. 

The second lamp on the right points to the third great 
division of the New Testament, the twenty-one epistles to 
the churches, and to individuals. In Matthew, Mark, 
Luke and John we have been told of God's great love for 

* Living Oracles, t Matt, xxviii. 19, 20 ; Mark xvi. 15, 16 ; Luke xxiv. 47. | Acts ii. 41. 
I Ex. xxxii. 28. I! Needham, p. 139. 



54 



THE JEWISH TABERNACLE. 



man, and the sacrifice offered to win him from sin and 
everlasting destruction. In the "Acts of the Apostles " 
we are rightly directed how to accept of that love and ap- 
propriate it to our everlasting happiness. In the first 
bowl we hear the proclamation to the apostles to enlist sol- 
diers for the King's great army. In the "Acts of the 
Apostles " we are rightly directed how to enlist as soldiers 
of the cross. In the twenty-one letters we are told how 
to conduct ourselves as soldiers in the army of the Lord. 

It was comparatively easy to enlist on the 17th day of 
June, 1 86 1, on the call of the President of the United 
States, to aid in suppressing a rebellion, and to maintain 
the bounds of the Union from the Atlantic to the Pacific 
and from the Lakes to the Gulf ; but it was quite another 
matter to go into a camp of instruction, learn the manual 
of arms and movements upon the field ; to go on long and 
weary marches, engage in decisive battles, and endure 
" hardships as good sokliers " for the country. So in the 
infinitely more glorious cause of truth and freedom in the 
service of our heavenly King. We endure whatever He 
lays upon us, looking forward to the "glorious hope" 
that awaits the redeemed "by any by," when we all shall 
have "fought the good fight and have kept the faith." 
May we know no surrender and no shrinking from duty. 

The last lamp shines out in favor of the prophetical 
book of the New Testament. This takes the Church 
through all her trials, and lands her at last in the paradise 
of God. 

This lamp-stand would have been useless, though made 
of purest gold and the bowls filled with perfumed olive oil, 
unless the wicks had been lighted. By this light the 
priests could see the golden room, the table of shew-bread 
and the beautiful golden altar. As a type of the Bible, it 
must not be forgotten, though David says "Thy word is 



THE JEWISH TABERNACLE. 



55 



a lamp to my feet and a light to my path," that that word 
must shine out into all the world now, through the Church. 
As the oil must be pure, beaten olive oil, properly per- 
fumed and on fire, to radiate the light, so the Church must 
be the "light of the world," fired only with the pure, 
heavenly truths of the gospel, and permitting its light to 
radiate through it into all nations, or gross darkness will 
forever cover the people. May we ever be true to our 
vows, and serve with fidelity our great High Priest. 

We will now examine the Old Testament, divided into 
Law, Prophets and Psalms : 

I. Law.— God, speaking to Moses, in Deut. xviii. 1 8, 
19, says : 

• 18 I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto 
thee, and will put my words in his mouth ; and he shall speak unto them 
all that I shall command him. 

19 And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto 
my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him." 

II. Prophets. — Isa. ii. 1-5 : 

" 1 The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and 
Jerusalem. 

2 And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the 
Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be 
exalted above the hills ; and all nations shall flow unto it. 

3 And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the 
mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will 
teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths : for out of Zion shall 
go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. 

4 And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many peo- 
ple : and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears 
into pruninghooks : nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither 
shall they learn war any more. 

5 O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of the 
Lord." 

Micah iv. 1-4, etc. 

III. Psalms.— The twenty-fourth Psalm of David: 



56 



THE JEWISH TABERNACLE. 



1 The earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof : the world, and 
they that dwell therein. 

2 For he hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the 
floods. 

3 Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord ? or who shall stand in 
his holy place ? 

4 He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart ; who hath not lifted up 
his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. 

5 He shall receive the blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from 
the God of his salvation. 

6 This is the generation of them that seek him, that seek thy face, O 
Jacob. Selah. 

7 Lift up your heads, O ye gates ; and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting 
doors ; and the King of glory shall come in. 

8 Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the 
Lord mighty in battle. 

9 Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift them up, ye everlasting 
doors ; and the King of glory shall come in. 

10 Who is this King of glory ? The Lord of hosts, he is the King of 
glory. Selah. 

All these prophecies, with scores of others, point us to 
a Messiah to come. 

In the twenty-seven books of the New Testament we 
have (i) the life of Christ, by Matthew, Mark, Luke and 
John, where we find Him of whom Moses and the proph- 
ets "did write"; (2) the acts or preaching of the apos- 
tles ; (3) the letters to churches and individual Chris- 
tians ; (4) Revelation, which tells of the Messiah who 
has visited the earth, but who has returned to His heaven- 
ly abode to prepare mansions for those who love and obey 
Him. The figure seven, it is believed, denotes perfection. 
It is mentioned in the Scriptures more than five hundred 
times* It was not used, accidentally so frequently. In 
the lamp-stand we have perfection, and in the Scriptures a 
perfect Divine revelation. We have the most profound 
reason for thankfulness that we possess this great blessing 
of God's will to man. In Revelation (22nd chap.) we are 
told that Christ is the "Alpha and Omega," the "first 



THE JEWISH TABERNACLE. 



57 



and the last," the "beginning and the end." In the 
lamp-stand we find him the center of all attraction, as well 
as at the beginning and ending of all revelation. 

The lamp-stand had for its main light the central lamp. 
This lamp is typical of Christ as the center of human his- 
tory, reaching back to the beginning of the race, and for- 
ward to the judgment of the world. He came into the 
world as the commencement of the authentic historical 
period. Without Him, the past in revelation is a myth. 
With Him, it is illumined with a radiance that leads us back 
safely to the Paradise of Eden, while the same radiance 
marks the pathway forward to the Paradise of God. A 
great effort has been made by writers to get in a type of 
the Holy Spirit. Dr. Richard Newton sees it in the laver 
of water: "The laver with its water is an emblem of the 
Spirit. It is also an emblem of the truth by which the Spirit 
operates" * Dr. Newton f and Mr. Needham \ both make 
the "oil" in the lamp-stand a type of the Holy Spirit. 

The Holy Spirit can have no type. Holy Spirit to us 
is Holy God, and God can not be typified. We must 
use our reason when we search for types and their an- 
swers. 

The " Holy Place " was a type of the Church, and the 
lamp-stand its light and only light ; so the "word of God " 
is the only light of the Church. To alter God's word or 
light for his people will be attended with severer punish- 
ment than was visited upon those who might dare to offer 
oil other than that prescribed by Divine direction to be 
" burned before the Lord. " In the world we walk by the 
light of reason ; in the Church by the light of revelation. 
In heaven " God and the Lamb " shall be the "light of 
it" forever and ever. The Jew had the court where the 
sun shone; the priest, the holy place, where the pure 

* u. iii. -^p. 166. lp. 78 



S 8 



THE JEWISH TABERNACLE. 



beaten olive oil gave light ; and the High Priest on atone- 
ment day offered in the Holy of Holies his sacrifice by the 
light of the sheckinah. The Jew had before him the 
court, the holy place, and Holy of Holies. We have the 
world, the Church and heaven. Beautiful thoughts are by 
many expressed concerning man as being composed of 
body, soul and spirit, and the worship and praise offered 
to Father, Son and Holy Spirit, in connection with this 
subject. 

We now pass to the 

TABLE OF SHEW BREAD. 

This sacred piece of furniture stood on the right hand 
of the Holy Place and opposite the lamp-stand. It was 36 
inches long, 27 inches high, and 18 inches wide. It is 
more properly called the "Table of the Presence." It 
was made of acacia wood, which was the material for all the 
wood-work of the building and furniture, and called by the 
Jews " never-dying wood. " 

Its use. — When the children of Israel escaped from 
Egyptian bondage, they passed through a channel made 
for them in the Red Sea. Paul says (I. Cor. x. 2): 
"They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in 
the sea." In about thirty days after their departure from 
Egypt, they were about to starve and die, because the 
food with which they started had become exhausted. To 
avert so dire a calamity, as soon as they found themselves 
helpless in the wilderness of Sin they appealed to Moses, 
their leader and deliverer, for help. Moses petitioned 
God on their behalf, and in answer to that petition God 
rained manna from heaven in the morning, out of which 
they made bread, and which saved and perpetuated their 
lives. Afterward Moses commanded the priests: * " Fill 

* Ex. xvi. 32-36. 



THE JEWISH TABERNACLE. 



59 



an omer [5 1-10 pints] of manna, to be kept for your 
generations, that they may see the bread wherewith I have 
fed you in the wilderness when I brought you forth from 
the land of Egypt." Aaron did so, for a memorial. A 
memorial of what ? The saving and perpetuating the 
lives of the children of Israel. Jesus said (John vi. 49) : 
"Our fathers did eat manna in the wilderness and are 
dead. I am the living bread which came down out of 
heaven ; if any man eat of this bread he shall live forever, " 
or, I will give him eternal life and perpetuate it. 

' The law commanded that the priests should see that 
twelve cakes were baked weekly, to be placed on the table 
every Sabbath, the old loaves to be eaten by them every 
Sabbath day in the holy place. There were twelve tribes, 
and each tribe was represented by a loaf. Why were the 
priests to eat of it on the Sabbath day ? As a memorial of 
the bread (manna) which saved and perpetuated their lives 
in the wilderness. From time immemorial a table spread 
with the necessaries and luxuries of life has been regarded 
as an emblem of fellowship or friendship.* The fiendish- 
ness of Judas is here seen: "Behold, the hand of him 
that betrayeth me is with me on the table." f " And I ap- 
point unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed 
unto me ; that ye may eat and drink at my table in my 
kingdom, and sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of 
Israel." In the type there are twelve loaves for twelve 
tribes. In the antitype there is one loaf for the one tribe 
or body of Christ. This one tribe — the true followers of 
the Saviour, all of whom are priests — partakes of the one 
loaf, the antitype which represents Christ's body given for 
us, on the first day of the week, or Lord's day. Why? 
For a memorial. A memorial of what ? Of the saving 
and perpetuating of the lives of believers when they were 

* Luke xxii. 21. f Luke xxii. 30. 



6o 



THE JEWISH TABERNACLE. 



about to starve and die spiritually. Jesus says, "This dt 
in remembrance of me."* Why? I am the true manna, 
which came down from heaven to give you eternal 01 
spiritual life, and to perpetuate that life. 

As Israel commemorated the fall of manna in the wil- 
derness, that saved them from physical death, so Jesus 
authorized a memorial, to be received by the true Israel, 
as He is the true and heavenly manna who saves all — be- 
lieving in and obeying His commandments — from an eter 
rial dying, or eternal separation from God.f The day, as 
well as the memorial, was to be observed. It must be so 
in the antitype. Christ, the heavenly manna, came to im- 
part life to those dead in sin and to perpetuate that life. 
" He that believeth on the Son hath eternal life ; but he 
that obeyeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath 
of God abideth on him " (John iii. 36). We received our 
spiritual life by faith — that Jesus is the Son of God. 
This faith is based upon His resurrection. His resurrec- 
tion brought "life and incorruptibility to light." Eternal 
life could not be given to the world until He rose from the 
dead. 

"The resurrection" and "the life" were co-eternal; 
hence here we have that which represents the time of me- 
morializing the act which gave life. That time is the day 
on which Christ rose from the dead, and each return of that 
day. Not any day, any more than the priests under the 
law in our type could choose any day. All the force of 
the Lord's supper is lost when observed on any other than 
the Lord's day, or when not observed on every Lord's day. 

The Saviour says (John iii. 5 ) that a man must be be- 
gotten of the Spirit and born of water, in order to enter 
the kingdom of God. One must read or hear the testi- 
mony of the Spirit through the apostles, and believe that 

* Luke xxii. 19. f Death always means separation from God. 



THE JEWISH TABERNACLE. 



6l 



Jesus is the Son of God, or the proposition God himself 
made at the Jordan and on the Mount of Transfiguration,* 
or he has no life in him, no matter how many times he 
may have been baptized. This life is lost, too, when a 
man refuses to be buried in baptism with his Lord. If 
baptized like the priest, who washed at the laver, he goes 
into the holy place with his life intact. The "table of 
the presence" is there, and there to perpetuate that life, 
and the person who wilfully absents himself from that 
table will lose his life and be lost. There is no other 
agent that will do what the loaf and the cup are vested 
with power to do. The moment God vested the power in 
the loaf and the cup, as one of the agencies to perpetuate 
life, he prohibited the exercise of a like power in any 
other agencies during the time that power was vested in 
the loaf and cup. If there is a jointure in agency (as we 
shall show there is ) then both agents must cooperate in 
the work. Incense — a type of prayer, of which we shall 
soon treat — is an aid not to beget but to perpetuate life ; 
hence, too much importance can not be placed upon the 
strict observance of the study of the word, the Lord's 
table, with the loaf and the cup and prayer. The Disci- 
ples of Christ are not alone in regarding it of the greatest 
importance that the observance of the Lord's Supper 
should be on every Lord's day. Mr. Spurgeon has prac- 
ticed it in his congregation for more than twenty years, 
and said, in a sermon delivered Febuary 16th, 1882: 
" When we first of all commenced to break bread on every 
first day of the week, I heard some say that they thought 
that the coming so often to the table might take away the 
impressiveness of the holy feast. Well, I have scarcely 
ever missed a Sabbath now these twenty years, and I never 
was so impressed with the solemnity and sweetness of the 



*Matt. iii. 17; Luke ix. 35. 



62 



THE JEWISH TABERNACLE. 



Master's Supper as I am now. I feel it to be fresher every 
time. When it was once a month I had not half the en- 
joyment in it, and I think that where friends have the com- 
munion once a quarter or once a year, as in some churches, 
they really do not give the ordinance a fair opportunity to 
edify them. They do not fairly test the value of an ordi- 
nance which they so grossly neglect, as it seems to me. 
No, you may have more and more and more and more and 
more and more of every thing that Christ has instituted 
and ordained, especially more and more of Himself, and 
the more you have the more freshness there will be." 

Major D. W. Whittle, the noted evangelist, told the 
writer, during the last meeting he and the lamented Bliss 
held together, that those who observed the weekly com- 
munion occupied the only Scriptural grounds for its ob- 
servance, and that there was no question in his mind as to 
the obligation resting upon all the followers of Christ to 
thus remember the Lord in his suffering and death on 
every first day of the week. 

I see by the Christian Standard of September 8, 1883, 
that the Baptists are discussing the subject of the weekly 
communion, and considering it favorably. Episcopalians 
in different parts of the country practice the weekly ob- 
servance of the Lord's Supper. We thank God and take 
courage that light is breaking. 

Mr. John Wesley delivered a discourse for the benefit 
of his pupils, in Oxford, England, in 1733, on the "Duty 
of Constant Communion," and stated, fifty-five years 
after, that he thanked God he had seen no cause to change 
his sentiments. 

"Do this in remembrance of me" (Luke xxii. 19). It is no wonder 
that men who have no fear of God should never think of doing this. But 
it is strange that it should be neglected by any that do fear God, and de- 
sire to save their souls ; and yet nothing is more common. One reason 
why many neglect it is, they are so much afraid of "eating and drinking 



THE JEWISH TABERNACLE. 



63 



unworthily," that they never think how much greater the danger is when 
they do not eat or drink at all. 

That I may do what I can to bring these well-meaning men to a more 
just way of thinking, I shall — 

1. Show that it is the duty of every Christian to receive the Lord's 
Supper as often as he can ; and 

2. Answer some objections. 

The first reason why it is the duty of every Christian so to do, is be- 
cause it is the command of Christ. ... Let every one, therefore, who 
has either any desire to please God or any love of his own soul, obey God 
by communicating every time he can — like the first Christians, with whom 
the Christian sacrifice [monumental love feast.— Ed.] was a constant part 
of the Lord's day service. . . . * 

Under the second head, and in his iothly, he says : 

But suppose a man has often been at the sacrament, and yet received 
no benefit. Was it not his own fault ? Either he was not rightly prepared 
or willing to obey all the commandments and to receive all the promises of 
God, or he did not receive it aright trusting in God. Only see that you 
are duly prepared for it, and the oftener you come to the Lord's table the 
greater benefit you will find there. 

After answering some twenty objections to its fre- 
quency, he says, in conclusion : 

If those who have hitherto neglected it on any of these pretences will 
lay these things to heart, they will, by the grace of God, come to a better 
mind, and never more forsake their own mercies. 

• We should like to quote more, but space forbids. The 
type and the reasons given for perpetuating our Christian 
life are surely sufficient to make " all men see" its great 
importance and the necessity for its weekly remembrance. 

THE GOLDEN ALTAR. 

This altar was 3 feet high, and 18 inches square. It 
was hollow, made of boards, and covered with gold, hav- 
ing a golden horn at each corner. It stood immediately 
in front" of the beautiful vail, and is universally regarded as 
a type of prayer. Simultaneous with altar offerings in the 

* Wesley's Sermons, Vol. II., p. 349- ' • 



6 4 



THE JEWISH TABERNACLE. 



court, a priest, with fire from the outer court, and with a 
handful of galbanum, stacte, frankincense and onycha in 
equal parts, powdered, it is thought, to the consistency of 
wheat, placed the fire and then the incense in the golden 
vessel upon the altar, and at once the whole building was 
filled with a dark cloud and a sweet smelling savor unto 
the Lord. The priest offering incense for the nation, rep- 
resents Christ offering our prayers to God in our behalf. 
The altar was a square, and presented the same appearance 
from every angle. So the Christian should resemble it in 
the perfectness of a Christian life before God and man. 
Prayer and praise, of which this incense altar was a type, 
may be confined to time. Death will close the necessity 
of prayer, but praise will be our sweet employment for- 
ever. The sweet fragrance ascends only when passed 
through fire. God often passes us through trials, and 
when He does, O may we say truly, "Though He slay 
me, yet will I trust in Him." Let us bring to God no 
vain oblation or abominable incense ( see Isa. i. 13). In 
Revelation v. 8, we are assured that our prayers are sealed 
in golden vials, to be poured out as sweet odors before the 
throne of God. How strangely the antitype of this altar 
has been used ! It has been carried out of the Holy Place 
— the Church — and placed not only out in the court, but 
beyond the altar of sacrifice, and the sinner invited to the 
altar of prayer before he sees Christ and His sacrifice, or 
the altar of burnt-offering ! 

Under the law a Kohathite might not even see the 
golden altar uncovered, under penalty of death, much less 
offer incense. (See Sunday-school lesson, February 24, 
1878 — King Uzziah, etc.) In Hebrews, 8th, 9th and 10th 
chapters, Paul gives a recapitulation of the Tabernacle 
service, and he calls it a "figure" only of better things 
in the gospel. The altar was the last article approached 



THE JEWISH TABERNACLE. 



6 5 



under the law, in the Holy Place. This will go unques- 
tioned. But, says one, ' ' That was true under the law ; but 
what correspondence to it do you find under the gospel 
dispensation?" When I went to school the teacher told 
the class in arithmetic that, when proving a sum in addi- 
tion, if we found the same result in adding the columns 
downward we did in adding them upward we might be 
satisfied our work was correct. Let us try this rule here. 
By common consent the mode for gathering and preparing 
materials for a church of Christ and putting it together 
was given us in Jerusalem, on Pentecost, a. d. 33. 

First. Peter preached the gospel for the first time on 
that day in the worldly sanctuary ; the people heard, be- 
lieved in Christ, and offered themselves to Him to be made 
priests. They asked what they should do. They already 
believed, and were told, secondly, to repent (Acts ii.), 
which they did, and, thirdly, to be baptized (now at the 
laver) for the remission of sins, and then they should re- 
ceive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Result : ' ' They that 
gladly received the word were baptized ; and that day were 
added to them about three thousand souls." 

It is further stated that ' ' they continued steadfastly in 
the Apostles' doctrine. " The word was not written, as we 
now have it, and was received from " mouth to ear" by 
the converts to the new faith, from the Apostles. They 
also continued in the "fellowship," caring for each other 
and providing means for the spread of the gospel, "in 
breaking bread" and "in prayers." So we find the new 
teaching corresponds exactly with the old order of things, 
or "type" or "figure." 

An English writer, known as C. H. M., has published 
some very interesting notes on Exodus, Leviticus and 
Numbers. Concerning them Maj. D. W. Whittle 
says : " I take great pleasure in heartily endorsing, to all 



66 



THE JEWISH TABERNACLE. 



Christians who desire to be more thoroughly taught in the 
word of God, the notes of C. H. M. Under God, they 
have blessed me more than any books, outside of the Bible 
itself, that I have ever read, and have led me to a love of 
the Bible that is proving an unfailing source of profit." 

Mr. D. L. Moody says: ''If they could not be re- 
placed, I would rather part with my entire library, except- 
ing my Bible, than with these writings. They have been 
to me a very key to the Scriptures." 

"The priesthood being instituted, as in the preced- 
ing chapters, we are here introduced to the position of true 
priestly worship and communion. The order is marked 
and instructive, and moreover precisely corresponds with 
the believer s experience. At the brazen altar he sees the 
ashes of his sins; he then sees himself linked with One 
who, though personally pure and spotless so that he could 
be anointed without blood, has nevertheless associated 
himself in life, righteousness and favor ; and, finally, in the 
golden altar, the preciousness of Christ as the material on 
which the divine affections feed. Thus it is ever — there 
must be a brazen altar and a priest before there can be a 

GOLDEN ALTAR AND INCENSE." 

In the very nature of things, prayer belongs to the 
citizen, the priest, by right; to the alien, the privilege only. 
See Cornelius, Acts x., John x. 31. 

God never ordained a preparation of incense for any one 
but a washed priest. No incense was ever offered in the 
worldly sanctua?y, even by a priest. Hence the penitent, 
baptized believer alone has the right of petition in the 
church or kingdom of God. A citizen and an alien can 
not be equal in the rights of citizenship. The common 
priest could go no farther than the place for the "golden 
altar," or in front of the beautiful vail. He was never so 
near God as when offering incense, for God was repre- 



THE JEWISH TABERNACLE. 



6/ 



sented under the faces of the Cherubim in the Holy of 
Holies. 

So the Christian is never as near God as in prayer. 
When we read the Bible, God talks to us. When we pray, we 
are permitted — and how great the honor ! — to talk to God. 
It is lamentable how the professed followers of Christ 
neglect their high and precious privileges. 

The incense offering was never neglected. Morning 
and evening it rose from the sacred altar. If the type is 
worthy of a moment's consideration, it will teach thou- 
sands a grossly neglected duty. 

This altar was. never approached until the priest had 
offered his gifts at the altar of sacrifice. The clouds of 
fragrant incense arose because the cloud from burning sacri- 
fices had first ascended. We have no doubt of our ac- 
ceptance at this altar, because we had no doubt about it at 
the outer altar. There we knew we offered to God, 
through Christ, without a mental reservation, our heart's 
best affection. We knew that God knew all things, and 
that He knew we made such an offering. We knew we 
were willing to follow where Jesus might lead. He had 
said : ' ' Ye are my friends if ye do the things I command 
you."* And we were anxious to become the friends of 
Jesus in His own way, and accepted of salvation with joy- 
ful hearts on His own easy terms. We knew all this, and 
knew that God was a willing witness to it, as He knew all S 
things, and that we were not, and could not, be deceived. 
"Being, therefore, justified by faith we have place with 
God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, "f 

Prayer is the language of want. Our blessings are ob- 
tained by petitioning for them. 

The bread of Heaven should be to us "more than our 
necessary food. " We shall praise our God forever, but 

*Jno. xvi. 14. f Rom. v. z. 



68 



THE JEWISH TABERNACLE. 



we shall let the thought of the poet ever possess us, as in 
a beautiful petition he sings : 

" I need Thee every hour : 
Stay Thou near by. 
Temptations lose their power 
When Thou art nigh. 

The altar of incense was the last object approached be- 
fore entering the Holy of Holies through the beautiful vail. 

Let us in mind and heart, as priests to God in the 
Church, offer "no vain oblation,"* nor "abominable in- 
cense " to the Lord in life's most momentous hour. 
The High Priest offered incense and the blood of sacri- 
fices once a year "within the vail," on behalf of the 
Hebrews, and in their behalf alone. "Our great High 
Priest is one forever, who has passed through the heavens — 
Jesus, the Son of God — who ever liveth to make inter- 
cession for us. Let us, therefore, draw near with bold- 
ness unto the throne of grace, that we may receive 
mercy, and may find grace to help us in every time of 
need." f 

THE BEAUTIFUL VAIL. 

It was made of the finest material of all the textile 
fabrics, of crimson, purple and blue colors, woven with 
Cherubim facing into both apartments of the golden build- 
ing. 

Jesus passed into the heavens through the vail — that is 
to say, his flesh. The position taken here that the vail was 
a type of the body of Christ, has been by some sharply 
criticised. After carefully re-examining the whole subject, 
it is quite impossible for me to change my views. The 
venerable and scholarly L. H. Jameson was asked his 
opinion of the significance of the vail as a type, and it is 
here presented in full : 

* Isa. i. 13. f Heb. iv. 



THE JEWISH TABERNACLE. 



6 9 



" Jesus passed into the heavens through the vail — that 
is to say, his flesh. That the vail typified the flesh or body 
of Jesus is beyond all controversy, for the Apostle says so 
in just so many words. The incidents of the crucifixion 
go to show beyond a doubt that such was the import. 

"Luke xxiii. 45 and 46: 

" * 45 And the sun was darkened, and the vail of the temple was rent in 
the midst. 

" '46 And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into 
Thy hands I commend my spirit : and having said thus he gave up the 
ghost.' 

"Also, Matt, xxvii. 50-52: 

" ' 50 Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the 
ghost. 

" '51 And, behold, the vail of the temple was rent in twain from the 
top to the bottom ; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent : 

" 4 52 And the graves were opened ; and many bodies of the saints which 
slept arose.' 

" The type and the antitype were here brought face to 
face — the rent vail and the broken body. 

"He consecrated for us a new and living way, or rather 
a new way to life (it is an Hebraism this) through the 
va il — that is, His flesh ; and (we now) having a great High 
Priest (made such by the oath of God and the power 
of an endless life) over the House of God, let us draw near 
with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having our 
hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and having had 
our bodies bathed in pure water. 

" It is only the vail of our flesh that separates us from 
the Holy of Holies, when Jesus, the Forerunner, our great 
High Priest, for us has entered once. As the curtain 
vailed the mercy-seat in the tent of witness, but, at the 
same time, as a screen permitted the light of the Divine 
presence between the faces of the Cherubim, shorn of its 
blasting rays, to be seen by the priest in the Holy Place 



7° 



THE JEWISH TABERNACLE. 



as he officiated at the golden altar, so the flesh of Jesus, 
while he was here below, was the means by which God 
was manifested to men. He was manifested in the flesh. 
He was the image of the invisible God — of the God on 
whom we can not look and live. He was the brightness 
of» the Father's glory, and the express image of Himself. 
Who ever saw Jesus saw the Father, as the priest saw the 
light of the glory of God in the vail that separated between 
the golden altar and the mercy-seat. 

"The rending of the flesh of Jesus opens the way for us 
into the true Holy of Holies, even into heaven itself, 
into which we may enter boldly by His blood or death. 

" Christian, thou hast a great High Priest 

At the right hand of God, 
Appearing in the Holy Place 

For sin with His own blood. 
With such an advocate to plead, 
And grace to help in time of need, 
Christian, thou shouldst not be afraid to die. 

"The way into the Holiest was riot made manifest while 
the first tent was standing, which was a type for the 
present time. " But Christ having come a High Priest of 
the good things to come, through the greater and more per- 
fect Tabernacle, not made with hands ; that is to say, not 
of this creation, nor yet through the blood of goats and 
calves, but through His own blood, entered in once for all 
into the Holy Place (Holy of Holies), having obtained 
eternal redemption for us. For if the blood of goats and 
calves, and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling them that have 
been defiled, sanctify to the cleansing of the flesh, how 
much more shall the blood of Christ, who, through the 
Eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish unto God, 
cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the liv- 
ing God?" (Heb. ix. u-i.A 



THE JEWISH TABERNACLE. 



7< 



R. V. Melville says: "The vail is rent to show that 
the Mediator made a passage into heaven, but in nothing 
does He act for himself alone. We rose with Him ; we 
ascended with Him, and, therefore, is the rending of the 
vail as much a pledge of our admission as His, who, by 
the efficiency of His sacrifice, provided for our being not 
only the sons of God, but joint heirs with Himself. . . 
Blessed be God for the rent vail. Like a window opened 
in the sky, there has come forth through it the shinings 
of eternity, the rich promises of immortality, rich and 
lively visions of the saints in light." 

These ecstatic visions will only be seen after passing 
through the vail — that is to say, our flesh. 

THE HOLY OF HOLIES. 

Before passing the sacred vail, let us examine the 
office, dress and functions of the High Priest. 

' ' A priest is one who mediates between God and man. 
It it his duty to present the gifts and sacrifices which the 
worshiper can not and dare not offer in person, and to bring 
back from God the assurance of acceptance and favor." 

The family priest ceased at the ratification of the 
covenant at Mount Sinai. 

It is possible that Moses would have been selected to 
the office of High Priest if his hands had not been suffi- 
ciently occupied. His nearest blood relative qualified for 
all the conditions of the office was Aaron. As previously 
in the family, so now we find in the nation the office of 
the priest hereditary. 

"Blessed is the man whom Thou choosest and causest 
to approach unto Thee, that he may dwell in Thy courts. 
We shall be satisfied with the goodness of Thy house, even 
of Thy holy temple."* 

* Ps. lxv. 4 



7^ 



THE JEWISH TABERNACLE. 



We who are in Christ have become ' ' a holy priesthood 
to offer up spiritual sacrifices." 

The common priest was habited in a plain white gar- 
ment, tunic-like in shape, reaching from his neck to his 
ankles, girded about the waist with a beautifully varie- 
gated linen sash. 

In addition to the white linen tunic, the High Priest 
wore four distinctive articles of dress which distinguished 
him from the common priests. Over the tunic he wore the 
robe of the ephod, a kind of skirt, blue in color, and pend- 
ent from it were pomegranates made of linen, and every 
third one crimson, purple and blue, a golden bell alter- 
nating a pomegranate. It was also ornamented around the 
bottom with blue fringe. The significance of the fringe 
is sufficiently explained by the following scripture, Num. 
xv. 37-41 : 

37 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

38 Speak unto the children of Israel, and bid them that they make 
them fringes in the borders of their garments, throughout their generations, 
and that they put upon the fringe of the borders a ribband of blue: 

39 And it shall be unto you for a fringe, that ye may look upon it, and 
remember all the commandments of the Lord, and do them ; and that ye 
seek not after your own heart and your own eyes, after which ye use to go a 
whoring : 

40 That ye may remember, and do all my commandments, and be holy 
unto your God. 

41 I am the Lord your God, which brought you out of the land of 
Egypt, to be your God : I am the Lord your God. 

All were to wear the blue fringe or tassels. 

Nothing is mentioned concerning the significance of the 
pomegranates, but is thought, owing to the immense num- 
ber of seeds the fruit contains, that its meaning is the same 
as that of the blue fringe. This is reasonable. 

The bells would be a constant reminder to the High 
Priest of his office, and the necessity for remembering and 
obeying the commandments of the Lord. 



THE JEWISH TABERNACLE. 



73 



Ex. xxviii. 34, 35 : 

34 A golden bell and a pomegranate, a golden bell and a pomegran- 
ate, upon the hem of the robe round about. 

35 And it shall be upon Aaron to minister: and his sound shall be 
heard when he goeth in unto the holy place before the Lord, and when he 
cometh out, that he die not. 

Over the robe of the ephod he wore the ephod made 
something like two aprons of fine linen, with crimson, 
purple and blue colors, beautifully woven together with 
fine threads of gold, giving it a rich and costly appearance. 
One part was worn upon the breast, the other upon the 
back. These pieces were joined together on the shoulder. 
The "curious girdle " was made of the same material. 

On his shoulders he wore two large onyx stones. On 
each was engraved six of the tribes of Israel, according to 
their birth. These were placed in frames of gold, and 
worn by the priest "asa memorial before the Lord." 

The breast-plate was a square of nine inches, made of 
linen. On it were fastened twelve gold frames or 4 1 ouches " 
to receive twelve costly stones of different colors, in four 
rows. Each stone had engraved upon it one of the tribes 
of Israel. This was fastened to the ephod and to the 
shoulders by golden chains. He wore "the breast-plate 
of judgment upon his heart when he goeth in unto the 
Holy Place for a memorial before the Lord continually." 
He was represented as bearing upon his shoulders (the 
symbol of strength) the twelve tribes as a burden before 
God ; as well as a people dear to him, by wearing the 
breast-plate, beautified with costly gems, over his heart 
" before the Lord continually." 

Around his forehead, over the mitre or hood, he wore 
a band of pure gold, fastened to a blue lace or ribbon, which 
was tied behind his head. 

Ex. xxviii. 36-38 : 



74 



THE JEWISH TABERNACLE. 



36 And thou shalt make a plate of pure gold, and grave upon it, like 
the engravings of a signet, HOLINESS TO THE LORD. 

37 And thou shalt put it on a blue lace, that it may be upon the mitre ; 
upon the forefront of the mitre it shall be. 

38 And it shall be upon Aaron's forehead, that Aaron may bear the 
iniquity of the holy things, which the children of Israel shall hallow in 
all their holy gifts; and it shall be always upon his forehead, that they may 
be accepted before the Lord. 

The breast-plate contained in its pocket-like shape, 
when worn, the Urim and Thummim. It is useless to de- 
scribe them or their use beyond what has been written by 
Moses. The 28th chapter of Exodus describes quite fully 
the High Priest, his dress and office. 

On the day for entering the Holy of Holies these high 
priestly garments were to be laid aside, and the wearer of 
them must appear before that which represented the pres- 
ence of God in the plain white robes of a common priest. 
The whole nation on this day was to afflict its soul. * It 
was the tenth day of the seventh month. Every man 
knew the importance of the day. If their High Priest 
perished in appearing before God in the Holy of Holies 
they knew that every one of them would perish, because 
of their sins. In deep humiliation they surrounded the 
court and ' 'afflicted their souls." 

The High Priest had carefully prepared for this solemn 
occasion by living so as not to become unclean. In later 
times he lived for six days in one of the temple rooms, on 
a small amount of food, and on the seventh fasted until its 
arduous labors were ended. No one could assist in the 
service, and he must be alone in the sacred building. This 
convocation was the fifth of the year. 

' ' It was the tenth day to indicate the completeness of 
the atonement. It was the seventh month because the 

* Lev. xvi. 29. 



THE JEWISH TABERNACLE. 



75 



month closed the festival half of the Mosaic year, and thus 
in a sense formed its Sabbath."* 

First. After offering the regular service of the morning 
pertaining to the court and Holy Place, he offered a bul- 
lock, a ram and seven lambs for a burnt offering, and a 
goat for a sin offering, with fine flour and salt, f 

Second. " He then bathed his entire body ( the ordi- 
nary washing of hands and feet before sacrificing would not 
suffice), and then dressed in pure white linen, as pre- 
scribed, without his ornaments. How can man appear be- 
fore God except in simplicity ? And how more appropri- 
ately dressed than in white, the symbol of holiness?" 

Third. He then brings to the north side of the altar a 
bullock for a sin offering for himself and his associates. J 

Fourth. He takes live coals from the altar in a golden 
vessel and sets it down inside the beautiful vail, drops the 
incense upon the coals, and the Holy of Holies is quickly 
filled with a dark cloud, as an offering of what to us is 
a type of prayer, hence a protection from the brilliancy of 
the light, and, on account of sin, an offended God. 

Fifth. Leaving the burning incense, he retires to the 
altar, takes the blood of the bullock into the Holy of 
Holies, faces the East and sprinkles a few drops of blood 
upon the " mercy-seat " and seven times upon the ground 
before it. Between the ark of the covenant and the 
golden altar there was but little more than space enough 
to hang the vail. This act atoned, if accepted, the sins 
of the priests. God accepted, for the time being, the 
blood of the bullock in the place of their own lives, who 
had violated his law. 

Sixth. Two goats had been brought, as nearly 
alike as possible, and placed before him. One to be slain 
as a sin offering for the people, and the other to be sent 

* Schaff H. Ency. p. 166. f Num. xxix. 8, 9. J Lev. xvi. 11. 



7 6 



THE JEWISH TABERNACLE. 



into the wilderness, to bear away the sins of the people. 
The High Priest cast lots to determine which should be 
slain and which should be sent away to the wilderness. 

As it required Moses and Aaron to represent Christ in 
His double office of Mediator and Intercessor ; Aaron the 
altar and the kid, to represent Him as priest, altar and 
sacrifice for us : so, as the slain goat could not be brought 
back to life, it required that the one slain should also be 
represented by a living goat. Jesus said: " I have power 
to lay down my life, and I have power to take it again." 

After the High Priest had slain the goat he applied 
the blood in precisely the same manner in behalf of the 
nation as he had done in his own behalf and that of his 
associates. He could not officiate for others until he had 
atoned for his own sins. 

This closes the expiatory rites in the Holy of Holies. 

Eighth. He is then required to cleanse the Holy Place, 
which was done by sprinkling the blood of the bullock 
and goat seven times before the vail and touching each of 
the horns of the altar of incense with the blood of offer- 
ings. * 

Ninth. The atonement was then made, the Rabbis say, 
by mingling the blood of the sacrifices and performing as 
at the golden altar. 

Tenth. Then the confession of sin by the priest with 
his hands upon the head of the scape-goat ; and, confessing 
all the sins and iniquities and trangressions of the children 
of Israel over him, he sends him away into the wilder- 
ness by a person previously selected, bearing upon his 
head all their iniquities into an uninhabited land.f 

J The blood upon the mercy-seat atoned for the sins of 
ignorance of which the Hebrews had been guilty for that 



-Lev. iv. 17. Num. xvi. 16. | Lev. xvi. 21, 22. \ I say nothing about Azazel, for the 
reason that no one knows anything about it. All that has been written is conjecturaL 



THE JEWISH TABERNACLE. 



77 



year, and for them alone. By it the priesthood and peo- 
ple were restored to the favor of Jehovah. That sprinkled 
upon the ground before the ark doubtless referred to the 
anticipated removal from this apartment of the unclean- 
ness which otherwise it might contract from their sins, it 
being situated in their midst. The admission of the blood 
within the Holy of Holies showed that the penitent sin- 
ners, in whose behalf the blood was offered, might not 
come merely where they could have fellowship with God 
by faith, but where there should be no vail of separation 
between them. Its application to the golden mercy-seat, 
where Jehovah sat enthroned between the faces of the 
Cherubim, set forth the fulness of fellowship with him, to 
which they were entitled by virtue of the atoning blood. * 
The blood of the bullock purified the tabernacle from 
the sins of the priest ; that of the goat from those of the 
people. The High Priest must first atone for his own 
sins. Our great High Priest made reconciliation for our 
sins only. 

The blood of the first goat covered with its life the 
forfeited life of the nation when accepted on the mercy- 
seat. Christ, our mercy-seat, also " blood bought," to 
which we can come, was sprinkled with blood of an in- 
finitely better and holier sacrifice. The second goat rep- 
resented that their sins were removed forever far out of 
sight. They were one sin offering, f 

In the ark was deposited God's word or law, and had 
not the golden lid of mercy, or "mercy-seat," hid that 
word or ten commandments from the eye of every one 
but that of God and the High Priest, no Jew could have 
lived a day, for they were ever violating ignorantly or un- 
premeditatingly its commandments. Blood upon that lid 
atoned for their sins of ignorance for that year. That 

* E. E. Atwater. | Lev - xvi - 5- 



78 



THE JEWISH TABERNACLE. 



covenant remained there for 1,500 years, and over that 
covenant or law, and on the " mercy-seat, " between the 
faces of the Cherubim, God met the Jewish race in the 
person of the High Priest, and He met them alone. 

He afterward took that law out of the ark and placed 
His word in the body of Christ, and Christ did bequeath 
that word to God's ambassadors, the twelve apostles. At 
His death He rent the Vail between the Holy and Holy 
of Holies in the temple — separating and re-arranging them. 
The Holy of Holies and the ark, Christ, was removed to 
heaven, where God now, through Christ, the believer's 
High Priest, meets His people, and only His people. 

Our High Priest having ordered that the ambassadors 
of God should carry His word, or "new covenant," or 
"gospel," to all the world — to every creature — that, the 
" Lampstand, " or "gospel," or "word of God," being in 
the Holy Place — that is, in the Church — the Church is 
to let it shine through itself unto all the tribes of men. 

How great our responsibility before God ! May we 
discharge it faithfully. 

Eleventh. The last act of the High Priest in the Holy 
of Holies was to remove the golden incense censer. 

In the Holy Place, or possibly in the porch of the 
tabernacle, he bathes his body ; re-invests himself with his 
golden garments, of which in the morning he had been 
divested, before again making his public appearance. 

No one else was allowed in the tabernacle during the 
day.* 

Every member of the Christian Church now on earth 
is a student of divinity [of the word of God, or should 
be. — Ed.], a candidate for the ministry, a priest in training 
for the high office awaiting him in the glory of the 
heavenly state." f 



*Lev. xvi. 17. t Newton, p. 117. 



THE JEWISH TABERNACLE. 



79 



It is an hour of intense anxiety to the waiting multi- 
tude without. Will God spare the nation by sparing the 
life of their High Priest ? Within the inner court were the 
common priests, with the princes and elders of Israel, 
while around the cloth wall, or outer court, are the millions 
composing the Hebrew nationality. 

It requires no stretch of the imagination to see the 
anxiety pictured on every honest countenance with respect 
to their destiny. How quickly sadness gives place to re- 
joicing when the music of the golden bells is heard, as 
the High Priest puts on his robe of the ephod. The shouts 
of the nation tell of their delight in that, when God gives 
them hope for another year of service. 

Twelfth. Upon returning to the court he offers the fat 
of the offerings upon the altar of burnt offerings, and sends 
the bodies entire of the bullock and goat a mile away, 
to be burnt without the camp in a clean place. The 
person who burned them and the one who led away the 
goat were unclean until evening, when, after bathing and 
washing their clothing, they were permitted to return to 
camp. 

Thirteenth. The usual ceremony of evening sacrifice 
was then attended to by the High Priest. He could 
then, wearied and uterly exhausted, return to the bosom 
of his family, from whom he had been so many days 
separated. 

Surely in this we have a plain and beautiful type of the 
Saviour of the world. 

When Jesus came to the earth he laid aside the royalty 
of heaven and came to " his own " in the poor garb of hu- 
manity. After He was "Christed" at His baptism, He 
commenced that labor, sacrifice and suffering in which 
none, however willing, could act any part. " He trod the 
wine-press alone." After His six trials, death and resur- 



8o 



THE JEWISH TABERNACLE. 



rection, he ascended to the heavens, while attendant angels 
cried : 

' ' Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lifted up, 
ye everlasting doors ; and the King of Glory shall 
come in. 

4 ' Who is this King of Glory ? The Lord strong and 
mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. 

" Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift them up, 
ye everlasting doors ; and the King of Glory shall come in. 

' ' Who is this King of Glory ? The Lord of hosts ; he 
is the King of Glory." (Psalms xxiv. 7-10.) 

Wide open the gates, and the King in His glory enters 
the Holy of Holies, not with the life of the bullock or 
goat, but with His own precious blood, which He offers, 
not for the Jews only, but in behalf of the world. The Father 
witnesses the bruised and torn body, accepts the sacrifice 
offered by Christ himself, and calls upon Him to be seated 
at His right hand until He shall make His foes His foot- 
stool. 

The wondering Disciples still linger riveted to the 
sacred spot until warned away by an angelic messenger. 
They tarry in Jerusalem for ten days, when a herald — the 
Holy Spirit — arrives from heaven, informing them that their 
High Priest lives, and that the judgments of earth are re- 
versed in heaven. No more anxiety about the salvation 
of the world. 

The message is proclaimed, the terms are accepted by 
" three thousand souls," and the same terms are extended 
to " every creature," with the same promise given to the 
Pentecostians, that of "forgiveness of sins" and the gift 
of the Holy Spirit, upon the same conditions as those 
which the Pentecostians accepted. 

Christ is now our ' ' Mercy-seat, " to whom we can come 
with the blood of sprinkling better than that of Abel. 



THE JEWISH TABERNACLE. 



8 1 



Not only is Christ typified by the High Priest in the 
Aaronic line, but He is a priest forever after the order of 
Melchizedek.* 

' ' But Christ has Kingly glory and power. He is Lord 
of all." As Maker of the heavens and earth, He has the 
right to rule. 

Melchizedek, and not Aaron, is again the type. ' ' King 
of righteousness!" " King of Glory!" He governs man- 
kind by the "good news" He came to deliver, and will 
bless all who accept it, and condemn with eternal banish- 
ment from His presence all who reject it. 

Christ, according to Hebrews, seventh chapter, is both 
King and Priest, and has a Kingdom and Church. He 
will rule through age of ages. 

As a King, into whose hands "all things" had been 
given, He made laws ; as our priest forever, He executes 
them. 

The Jews "afflicted their souls" on the atonement 
day, and eagerly watched for the return of their Hidi 
Priest as he came out of the tabernacle for the last time, 
and their rejoicing knew no bounds when the music of the 
bells announced that he was alive, and that "every eye" 
would soon see him. It has been announced that our 
High Priest still lives. Are we waiting in anxious expec- 
tation for His coming. He may not come to-night, next 
week, or next year. 

"Let us, therefore, come boldly unto a throne of 
grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in 
time of need." (Heb. iv. 16.) 

i. 

In the Saviour's precious name 

We approach a throne of grace ; 
Boldly, without fear or shame, 

* Heb. vii. 13. 



82 



THE JEWISH TABERNACLE. 



Entering in the sacred place. 
II. 

Here we ask for what we need ; 

Here our wants are all supplied : 
All we have to say or plead 

Is, that Christ, the Saviour, died. 

in. 

Grace and mercy here we find ; 

Comfort for each sore distress; — 
If of contrite heart and mind, 

Christ, the Lord, will richly bless. 

IV. 

None are ever sent away 

Empty from this gracious throne ; — 
Help us ever, Lord, to pray : 

"Not my will, but Thine be done." 
September 19, 1883. — L. H. Jameson. 

"I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man 
comes to the Father but by me." (John xiv. 6.) 

1. 

Christ is the only way 

That leads the soul to God, « 
The way to everlasting day 

In the Divine abode. 

11. 

He is the truth of God, 

That makes the sinner free ; 
And freedom by His precious blood 

Is perfect liberty. 

in. 

He is the life divine, 

That helps us conquer death — 
The life where all the virtues shine 

To vitalize our faith ; 

IV. 

The way of holiness — 



THE JEWISH TABERNACLE. 



83 



The truth that makes us free — 
Tbe life of peace and happiness, 
O Lord, we find in Thee. 
September 16, 1883. — L. H. Jameson. 

But He is coming in the clouds of heaven with an 
angel's trumpet, and with the voice of God, to claim His 
ransomed and bear them home to heaven, and to take 
vengeance on those who defied His power and rejected His 
mercy. Remember and look for Him, and watch for His 
coming, for in such a day as you think not He will call for 
you. 

The only way into the Holy of Holies was through the 
Holy Place by way of the Gateway, Altar of Sacrifice and 
Laver. The only way into Heaven is through the Church 
of Jesus Christ. Not through Masonry, Odd Fellow- 
ship or Temperance orders ; but through the blood of the 
Son of God, applied to the heart through faith in His 
word, repentance (or a change of the whole life by con- 
fessing Jesus as the Son of God, and your only hope and 
Saviour) by a baptism into His death and a resurrection to 
a new and better life, and then as a pupil or learner of 
His, seek daily, through the study of the word, and offer- 
ing the sweet incense of prayer, glory, honor and incor- 
ruptibility. 

I wage no war on secret organizations. I know the 
workings of several of them, but they must never be in 
the place of the Church, in the remotest sense. 

Every article that was made was carefully inspected 
by Moses, to see if it was according to the pattern. 
It was on the peril of his soul that he pronounced upon 
them. 

Again and again in Exodus, 29th and 30th chapters, it 
is written after each examination: "As the Lord com- 
manded Moses." 



8 4 



THE JEWISH TABERNACLE. 



Shall we carefully examine the antitype, and realize 
that it is on the peril of our souls ? 

In early Jewish times the land of Palestine had a rest 
every seven years. Enough grew in the sixth year to last 
until the crop of the eighth was harvested. When seven 
of these cycles had passed, the Israelites enjoyed what is 
called the jubilee year.* Enough grew of grain and 
fruits in the forty-eighth year to last until the crop of the 
fifty-first year was harvested. In this year every mortgage 
was cleared and every bondsman freed. From Dan, on the 
North, to Beersheba, on the South, from the mountains 
on the East, to the Great Sea, on the West, the people 
could sing, ''The year of jubilee has come," and every 
family be reunited. 

May the children of God in Christ Jesus so live that 
when life and its toils and sufferings are all over, the trumpet 
may sound in their ears, and they be gathered home with 
all the ancient worthies, with the " blood- washed " of 
every age, to sit down on the ever green ' ' mountains of 
life" and sing forever and ever and forever, "The year of 
jubilee has come; the year of jubilee has come." 



* Lev. xxv. 



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